Macro Photos of Plants

Lucky me can get an early holiday of Eid season.... so after do the housework and also fix my kids, I grabbed my camera and starter walking around my garden. I've put my 100mm Macro Lens hope that I can get a good shot with the morning sun.....


Here are some of it... :-)

In Pictures - President's Visit to Purwokerto

This afternoon while driving home from office, I've noticed some unusual activity along the way, where tens of policemen lining down the street and guarding every lane and alley.... So I thought this must be something special.. a VIP or even VVIP guest to our town....

Once I got home, I've asked 2 policemen that guard my real estate complex, and YES... they said that the President will pass this street for overnight stay in our town.....

I ran down to the house, grab my camera and hopefully can get something out of it.....

Here are some pictures of the president and his entourage......
all of these pictures were taken using Canon 50D and 70-200 F/2.8L Lens

While waiting.....

Now I can see them but I have to move to the other side of the street

Here they are....

The president open his window and you can see his hand hanging there...

I think this is the governor's car

Central Java's Head of Police's car

Gold Price Plummeted more than USD 100 overnight....

After reaching a record of more than USD 1900 per tray ounce, gold price has fallen more than USD 105 overnight....

Quote from Reuters:

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gold futures fell more than $100 on Wednesday, one of the steepest falls ever, as strong U.S. economic data and expectations of more Federal Reserve stimulus accelerated profit taking from the safe-haven record high of a day ago.
Selling spiraled out of control as money managers competed to liquidate positions in COMEX futures, which experienced their biggest single-day dollar loss since 1980. Volume looked like a record.
The price of gold bullion is now more than $150 below Tuesday's all time high of $1,911.46 an ounce, downed by intense speculation about whether the Fed will announce new plans to ease monetary policy at a meeting late this week.
Analysts said it was time for gold investors to take money off the table after the rally extended too far, too fast in recent weeks. Bullion rose as much as $400 since July.

 So today the market will be confused... seller (gold shop/toko emas) will reluctant to sell their stocks.
Although for buyer like us will be a good time to get something out of it....

Current Gold price:

Not a good graph to see... :)
So a good suggestion to face this moment is be wise! as we can not control the price of gold.

“The Fed could support the stock market directly by buying market averages in the futures market, thus stabilizing the market as a whole,” Heller wrote in an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal after saying the same thing in a little-noticed speech. “The stock market is certainly not too big for the Fed to handle.”…

Will it continue to plummeted? or this will be the bounce back point??
Fingers cross.....

1 Kilo of Australian gold... nice....

Carl Zeiss MC Biometar 80mm F/2.8 Lens (Amateur) Review

Well guys... here I am trying to put my self as a reviewer for a beautiful lens. As an amateur user I've had some opinion with this lens... and here's the story behind it....:

I've acquired this lens couple weeks ago from Kaskus one of the largest Indonesian community website. The price for this lens is around US $225. there was couple of mixed up during the process of acquiring this lens. At first place after place my bid and get the nod from the seller for the agreed price, I've transferred the money and hopeful the lens will be sent straight after the transfer.... turned out that the seller didn't HAVE the lens with him at the time. He asked his best friend to keep it and also sell it for him, and his friend was out of town for a couple days. So after waiting couple of days, finally the lens was sent to me. Before sending the package, the seller asked me whether I wanted the M42 adapter. For my understanding, I thought he offered M42-EOS adapter, and I have that already at home, so I said No Thanks.... actually... what he meant was Pentacon 6 - M42 adapter.... jeeeez.....

So when the lens arrived at my place, there's nothing I can do with it because I don't have the right adapter for it. And I have to purchase the adapter for around US $20. OK the adapter arrived, can't wait to test it....

Beautiful medium format lens.....

But when I check the diaphragm, Ive noticed that the blade got stuck open wide, I've tried to play around with the ring turn it forward and backward but no luck so far..... So I've returned the lens to the seller and he promised to fix that for me.

 

Carl Zeiss Biometar 80mm F/28 with Pentacon 6-M42 and M42-EOS adapter

After a week or so.. the finally I've got this lens with me in a perfect working order... yayy.....

So I've attached it to my Canon 50D and it looked like this:

From some of the reviews I've read, this lens can produce a beautiful chained bokeh and good color render. I've played around the house with this lens and here are some samples of it....

 Beautiful rounded bokeh (Shot with 50D)

 Beautiful rounded bokeh (Shot with 50D)

 Chained bokeh... very sharp open wide

 Shot with 7D very beautiful bokeh...

I took this picture using my Lumix GF-2 with M42-micro 4/3 adapter, I think I need time to adjust myself using live view with manual lens.... so the picture a little bit out of focus....

So far my opinion of this lens is worth to have and collect as the lens can produce amazing picture, right now I'm looking for a tilt shift adapter for this lens so I can play around with it and create a miniature effect with it.....

It's worth the wait and every cent that I've spent for this lens.....

Sorry for my english and sorry for the very amateur review...... :-)

Blackberry Bold 9900

Here it goes again... new gadget towards the end of 2011.....
Features: Bigger memory capacity, OS7 (WOW), slightly larger keyboard, touch screen
But overall... it's just another revamp of ONYX.... :(

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 happens to be something of a shock. You see, for a long time, BlackBerry has, in a sense, been playing catch up. Thats by no means a dig at RIM, it’s pretty much regarded as royalty in push email and business circles. Nevertheless it continues to be rare for RIM to be at the forefront.
Cameras, online browsing, HTML emails were all sadly featured on RIM’s mobiles years after they had become the norm on most devices. Just take a look at some recent examples of good phones that did not really break the boundaries like the Bold 9780 and 9700.
However the Blackberry Bold 9000 this time offers some leading tech, and in a stunning package to boot. It has an impressive 1.2GHz processor, the latest touchscreen, brand new OS7 and a brilliant 720p HD video camera which is definetly something we didnt expect from BlackBerry anytime soon.

Bigger and Bolder Blackberry Bold 9900

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is bigger and bolder than before! It’s actually quite a great deal bigger within the hand, although considerably thinner. Consequently it’s definitely quite big within the hand, even though the decrease in thickness makes it feel completely feasible, along with the fantastic QWERTY keyboard which has become larger and a lot more wonderful to use. Overall the Blackberry Bold 9900 feels dependable featuring its stainless steel frame which also  looks the business aesthetically.

Jasa Penukaran Uang

Menjelang hari raya Idul Fitri... hal utama yg dilakukan teman2 karyawan setelah dapat THR adalah nukar uang receh....

Minggu lalu udah sempet nukar uang ke bank sesuai request dari temen2 karyawan RS ANANDA. Setelah di gelar diatas kasur hehehe... jadi berasa kaya raja minyak (tanah) hahahaha nih fotonya....

Ternyata setelah di pilah2 dan siap dibagi untuk para penukar..... hwaaaa masih kurang... terpaksa harus ke bank lagi nuker uang buat nutup kekurangan yg mau nukar....

Semoga semangat hari raya Idul Fitri yang jatuh pada tanggal 30 Agustus 2011 ini bisa seperti lembaran uang baru yang akan kita berikan kepada orang terdekat atau orang yang kita kasihi... semangat yang membawa hati bersih, licin dan rapih seperti lembaran uang baru... harum dan enak dipandang serta ketulusan untuk menolong sesama manusia tanpa pandang bulu.....

It will be a long sleepy day.....

Semalam mendadak ngga bisa tidur.... berawal dari rutinitas biasa, mendadak ada BBM masuk sekitar jam 8, diajak ketemu sama arsitek dan sipil yg mau bangun gedung baru RS....

So jam 20.30 berangkat ke kantor deh.. walaupun hari minggu.... hihihi....

sampai disana chit chat soal gambar dan layout, selesai jam 10 malam... sebelum pulang nyempetin makan nasgor dulu setengah......

jam 11 sampai rumah... wah udah kemalamam.. tidur ah.... (niatnya...)
sampai di kamar bolak-balik kesana sini koq ga bisa tidur.... :'(
Akhirnya nyalain TV lagi.... check channel STAR MOVIES... ternyata ada film Haunted Changi

Damn..!! film horor... wkwkwk... terpaksa deh nonton juga karena susah tidur... ternyata lumayan seru dan menegangkan... walaupun agak lebay... mirip2 ama Blair Witch Project, kisah anak2 muda Singapore yg nyari aktifitas paranormal di bekas bangunan RS Changi Singapore. Walaupun sekilas kelihatan nyata (trus project story..) tapi setelah browse tadi pagi soal film ini banyak teori yg bilang bahwa ini hoax semata (dalam film endingnya dilihatin sutradaranya dibunuh sama sound guynya pake samurai)..... Who knows...

Film selesai... masih belum ngantuk... cek EPG acara TV ternyata ada Berlusconi Cup di AnTV antara AC Milan vs Juventus, wah bakalan rame nih... makin seger aja tuh mata.....

Seru juga liat Milan main... (maklum die hard Milan fans sejak era Trio Belanda Gullit-Rijkaard-Van Basten)
Akhirnya cukup happy liat Milan bisa menang tipis 2-1.. walaupun sebagian besar pemain inti kaya Pato-Robinho-Ibra-Van Bommel-Thiago Silva-Mexes ngga dimainin.....

Jam 3 langsung saur sambil nunggu babak 2 mulai.......
Bola selesai jam 3.45.....
baru nyoba buat tidur lagi.... tapi kesadaran di kepala kayanya tetap tinggi nih...... jam 5 udah duduk lagi dan langsung nyalain TV..... (nonton lagi)....

Alhasil sekarang jam 11.15 di kantor... mata rasanya masih seger... tapi agak disorientasi... hahaha.... jawab telepon jadi agak mikir......

Pulang cepat ah.... mudah2an bisa tidur......

Pajang foto waktu lagi rafting ah sama temen2 karyawan RS ANANDA.. biar seger dilihat..... :)

The World of Black and White

Beberapa foto jepretan hari ini in BW diolah memakai Adobe Lightoom

Gear Used: Canon 50D + Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm F/1.4

A Seriously Amateur Photographer

Sebagai seorang penggemar photography, sejak SMA saya sudah berkeinginan besar untuk menjadi seorang photographer profesional. Cita2 itu rupanya kurang mendapat dukungan dana karena kondisi keluarga yang kurang memungkinkan untuk itu. Tetapi ternyata selama SMA saya bisa terpilih menjadi ketua kelompok pecinta photograpi di sekolah padahal kamera-pun tidak punya.

Berbekal kamera pinjaman saya memulai kecintaan pada fotografi. Juga pada waktu kuliah saya kembali menjadi penggagas berdirinya kelompok pecinta fotografi di kampus dan juga tanpa memiliki kamera... hahaha..... gak tau juga pake ilmu apa koq ya bisa tanpa kamera gitu.....

Setelah beberapa tahun bekerja barulah saya bisa membeli kamera DLSR impian saya, kalau dihitung berapa tahun harus menunggu.... kira2 25 tahun..........

 Shot with Canon 7D + Canon 50mm F/1.4 USM

Dari sini saya belajar bahwa "nothing is impossible" cita2 tidak akan mati hanya karena adanya keterbatasan akan sesuatu......

Thank God saat ini saya bisa memiliki gear kamera yg cukup lengkap sebagai seorang amatir dan semuanya didapatkan dari hasil kerja keras selama ini.

Pada blog saya ini saya akan mencoba untuk menampilkan karya2 amatir saya, dan mohon segala masukan dan juga caci makinya hehehe..... untuk kemajuan juga dalam berkarya.....

Silakan share ilmu2 rekan bloggers disini semoga menjadi pelajaran yang berharga bagi kita semua.....

Salam.....