April blooms

In the past week, there had been heavy rain here in Johor Bahru interspersed with days of hot and humid weather. This cycle of wet and dry days have been good for the plants growing in our garden. A number of the potted plants have started to flower simutaneously. It is the first time in my memory that our yard has this variety of colour.

My largest collection of flowering plants are bougainvillaea shrubs. At last count, I have fifteen pots of various species. Almost all of them are blooming now although some of the flowers are not as dense as I have seen in other people's gardens. I'm still learning about the optimum techniques in fertilization but I'm slowly getting there. I now have bunga kertas flowers in different colours - pink, white, dark red, orange and purple.

I am not, however, sharing photos of the bougainvillaea flowers in this post. I thought I'd like to show pictures of other flowering plants that were taken using the camera on my mobile phone. I took the opportunity to test the macro function when shooting one of the tinier flowers.

I had not known the name of some of the plants. In researching about them using Google's image search feature, I learned many new things. Gardening is such a wonderful relaxing hobby.

1. Oxalis corniculata

Common name : Creeping woodsorrel
Malay name : unknown

Macro shot. Flower about 10mm in size. Actually a weed

2. Clitoria ternatea

Common name : Asian pigeonwings 
Malay name : Bunga telang

See earlier post -> A flower as vivid as its name

3. Stachytarpheta urticifolia

Common name : Nettle leaf velvetberry
Malay name : Selasih dandi

Scavenged from the wild and planted using stem cutting

4. Ixora coccinea

Common name : West Indian jasmine
Malay name : Siantan / Jejarum

White flowers. Large leaf variety

5. Ixora chinensis

Common name : Chinese ixora
Malay name : Siantan / Jejarum

Red flowers. Small leaf variety

6. Wrightia religiosa

Common name : Water jasmine
Malay name : Jeliti / Anting Putri

Very fragrant bloom. A favourite among local bonsai hobbyists

7. Lantana camara

Common name : Big sage
Malay name : Bunga tahi ayam

Scavenged from the wild and grown via stem cutting

8. Begonia convolvulacea

Common name : Shield leaf begonia
Malay name : Asam batu

Local name asam batu covers so many species

9. Gasminum sambac

Common name : Arabic jasmine
Malay name : Melur

Fragrant flower popularly used in garlands

There are a few other plants that are about to flower and whose names I do not know. I would carry out a similar exercise once I am able to photograph the bloom.

Changing my photo-sharing platform

In the early years of the new millennium when the world-wide-web was still a teenager, digital photography was becoming more affordable to the general public. In 2003 I bought my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix that had a 3.2-megapixel resolution, which was considered a sufficiently high specs at the time. It was a simple point-n-shoot compact and cost upwards of RM1k, a princely sum which had taken me a few months to save up. The dSLR was still out of my range.

With the ease and popularity of taking digital pictures, photo-sharing websites came into existence on the internet. The most popular platform at that time was Flickr. Many photos shared on Flickr were taken by serious photographers who were possibly professionals too. The high standard of digital pics somewhat scared me a little so I opted to upload my photos on a different site called Photobucket.

I am not sure how many photos I saved to Photobucket. I can't remember my login password and I'm not sure if the photos are still there. A bit of online checking reveals that Photobucket still exists but of course, at a much smaller scale than what it used to be. They have not deleted any old photographs so there is a possibility that I may be able to view what I had uploaded. I just need to explore how to do so.

With the advent of picture-taking capability on smartphones, the convenience of sharing the photos directly from the phone meant the emergence of new photo-sharing apps catered principally for the mobile market. In September 2015, I signed up on EyeEm, which I blogged about here -> Social Networking for Photographers. I uploaded quite a number of photos to that platform, mostly good quality shots taken on my dSLR. After a few years with EyeEm, my interest waned and I decided to deregister. I'm not sure what happened to the photos that I had shared. Are they deleted or does EyeEm have rights to use them? Who knows, it is probably in the terms and conditions (small print) which most of us do not read and simply tick 'accept' when we signed up.

Apart from photo-sharing sites, I also created a photo-blog using Blogger. It was called Oldstock's Images and a link was available on a sidebar on this blog. The objective was to display some of my photos which I think are worth sharing. Just pictures and a short caption. Brief or no write-up.

I have decided to shut down that blog too. I have not updated it since March 2017 and it hardly has any traffic. A total of 46 pics in 20 posts were on that blog with the first photos uploaded in May 2010. The last pic was a sunset shot taken at Lumut, Perak in March 2017. Perhaps I'll share them again on a different platform in future, who knows.

I am now on Instagram... yes, I know, only now, you ask? Have been on IG since December of 2020, so still very much a newbie. Although initially set up as a photo-sharing app, I note that many people use Instagram for marketing and commercial purposes. I do not have such intentions, so the number of followers or activity ranking is not important to me. What I do appreciate is the huge number of quality photographs on varying subject matter that can be viewed.

How long will I last as an Instagram user? We shall see...

Lumut sunset captured on Sony Xperia mobile phone

A new mobile in hand

Since early this year, I had been eyeing for a new mobile phone to replace the Huawei Nova 2i unit which I've been using for two years. Nothing wrong with the Nova 2i except that I felt its camera capabilities are somewhat lacking. Prior to owning the Huawei, I was using Sony Xperia phones of various models for quite a long time. The photo quality of the Xperia phones (even the lower end models) was very good. Close-up shots of subjects, especially food, were sharp and had vibrant colours. I used them extensively to post on Facebook and Whatsapp.

When I switched to using the Huawei, the photo quality does not seem to match that of the Sony. With the introduction of so many new models from a host of mobile phone manufacturers, I took to viewing Youtube review channels to search for my new gadget. The huge range of phones with seemingly endless features and at all imaginable price points is mind-boggling. It took me a while to digest the available information and narrow down the choice.

I finally took the plunge and opted for a mid-range phone that has a good camera setup. I bought the Vivo V20 last month, my first purchase of this particular brand. It has been a month of use now and so far I am quite pleased with its photo-taking capability, both the main (back) and selfie (front) cameras. I am yet to fully explore the phone's camera strengths.

The photo below is a sample of pics taken using the night mode setting. Not too bad, I think. 

Night view of Masjid Sultan Iskandar in Bandar Dato Onn, JB

The previous year in pictures

The last time I did a post like this was in January 2011, where I selected one photo for each month of the previous year. Six years has since passed and I'm now resuming the effort because I feel that most of the photos taken on my mobile phone camera are of reasonable quality.

There weren't that many interesting pics in the earlier part of 2016 but towards the end of the year, we traveled to a few places and visited many interesting spots. So choosing just one pic to represent each month became a somewhat pleasant problem.

Click on each photo if you wish to view a larger image.

January :

22.01.16 - Crown on a quartet of swords. Mersing

February :

05.02.16 - Jambatan Putus Buloh Kasap. Segamat

March :

12.03.16 - Wedding of the son of my former colleague, Mariam Ibrahim.
Taman Perling in Johor Bahru

April :

09.04.16 - Wedding of Nornajmiah Nawawi, niece on my wife's side.
Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam

May :

27.05.16 - Snake in the grass. Some of the hazards encountered in pipe maintenance works.
Bukit Indah, Johor Bahru

June : 

04.06.16 - Early morning exercise by the beach. Mersing

July : 

19.07.16 - Masjid Sultan Iskandar, Bandar Dato' Onn. Johor Bahru

August :

22.08.16 - Preparing for homemade briyani. Johor Bahru

September :

16.09.16 - Masjid Tengku Ampuan Jemaah, Bukit Jelutong. Shah Alam

October :

14.10.16 - Young man and old man. Dareez with his grand-uncle.
Surau Al-Hijrah, Kota Kemuning. Shah Alam

November :

06.11.16 - Selat Mendana, Kong Kong. Johor Bahru

December :

22.12.16 - Masjid Amirul Mukminin. Makassar, Indonesia

Mosques in Malaysia

In this post, I'm sharing the photographs of some mosques I have visited in my travels throughout peninsula Malaysia. I hope to extend my collection with pictures of mosques in Sabah and Sarawak plus other parts of the world, insyaAllah.

Masjid Terapung Tanjung Bungah, Penang - May 2010

Masjid Al-mukarramah, Sri Damansara - July 2010

Masjid Jamek Sultan Hishamuddin, Sabak Bernam - February 2011

Masjid Al-Azim (Masjid Negeri), Melaka - November 2011

Masjid Jamek Sultan Ibrahim, Muar - February 2012

Masjid Tengku Tengah Zaharah (Masjid Terapung), Kuala Trengganu - August 2013

Masjid Ubudiah, Kuala Kangsar - May 2015

Social networking for photographers

My first digital camera was a Nikon Coolpix compact bought in 2003. It boasted a `healthy' resolution 3.2 megapixels and cost me an excess of RM1k, a real princely sum at the time. Although not quite top-of-the line, I was fairly pleased with its performance. It was easy to use and produced quality photos. With that camera, I had an enjoyable time taking tons and tons of pictures, both for personal and work use.

After about 6 years of dedication, the camera finally gave up on me. By that time, there was no point in getting it repaired because obviously there were better (and cheaper) products in the market. I bought a Canon Powershot compact as a replacement. Although this camera has a higher pixel count, I somehow felt that my old Nikon gave more vibrant photographs. This fired the urge to upgrade to an entry-level DSLR a year later.

With the large collection of digital photos that I have, it therefore make sense for me to share or store them online, doesn't it? Well, not quite for me. Internet connection those days was real slow and memory storage at a premium. Home internet connection was only available via the pioneer ISP called Jaring (which I sadly heard, has closed shop) at a mere 14.4 bits/sec. High-speed internet was only available at business premises or at cyber-cafes. Uploading a single photo would take an agonizing few minutes.

The first photo-sharing website that I used was Photobucket. I can't remember how many pictures I uploaded to that site but I don't think it was that many. Probably ten to twenty files arranged in a few albums. I am not sure of the quantity because I no longer have access to the site, having abandoned my account many years ago. I'm certain the account is obsolete but Photobucket itself is still alive and kicking.

Later on, I found out that many of my photographer friends use Flickr (owned by Yahoo). When Google became an established IT company, they provided Picasa as a direct competitor to Flickr. Even so, I was not moved to be a user of either of the two most popular photo sites. I prefer to share my photos sparingly as part of my blog posts.

When mobile computing came into the mainstream with the use of smartphones, Instagram became the hot app for photo-sharing. Still, I have not been drawn to ride on that bandwagon, at least not for that particular app. But yesterday, things changed a bit...

I was browsing through fellow blogger Pak Adib's pages (Adib Noh - The Reader) when I chanced upon an old entry where he mentioned that some of his photos are on sale at Getty Images via a new photo-sharing app. I got to know of Pak Adib from the Sentraal Station FB blogger's group and noted that he is a keen photographer. He has uploaded a number of his photos in his blog and very good photos they are.

The app recommended by Pak Adib is called EyeEm. It works primarily for mobile smartphones (both Android and IOS) but there is also a desktop version. I had a look at the app and viewed some of Pak Adib's already extensive collection of photos on show. I have been bitten. I soon signed up for an account and started to upload some photographs, just as a start. I now have the app running both on mobile and desktop.

To my photographer (both serious and casual) friends, do have a peek at this site. If you decide to join, feel free to have a look at my profile. Just search for https://www.eyeem.com/u/oldstock or Fadhil Isma. Perhaps then, we could follow each other.

Port of Tanjung Pelepas at dusk. A similar pic can be seen at EyeEm.

A picture paints a thousand words

In almost all of my non-fiction articles in this blog, I have included a photo or two of the subject matter in question. A well-taken and relevant photograph helps to make the post interesting. In my early days of blogging, I have sometimes resorted to 'borrowing' some images from cyberspace because my own stock of original photos had not reached a sizeable collection yet. When this happens, I would credit the original website by providing a link within the article. I'm not sure if this would suffice as an acknowledgement of copyright but I make sure that none of the borrowed pics are used for commercial gain.

Nowadays, all the pics which I use to accompany any of my posts shall be my own original photos. After 8 years of blogging and hundreds of published postings, the number of photos I have uploaded to the internet is quite substantial. And if we are to include the photo albums I have on my Facebook account, the overall quantity is not insignificant.

Which now brings us to the reverse situation where any one of my photos available on cyberspace could be borrowed by another person. I had thought of this possibility some years ago. I wouldn't mind if my pics are being used by another party as long as they credit the source. But I guess in the super-duper huge borderless world of cyberspace, this seems to be an unrealistic request.

Two days ago, a friend shared a link on FB for the recipe for char kway teow, the so-called `wet' version that's so popular up north. When I first glimpsed at the photo accompanying the recipe, I thought it looked so familiar. I scrolled through my hard-disk for the stock of my original CKT pics (yes, I now have quite a few) and sure enough, I found the same photo which was snapped in 2012 when I sampled the dish at a roadside outlet in Taman Perling in JB. I had uploaded that photo both in this blog and in the Johor Sedap FB page.

Screenshot of the FB link

The original photograph, taken using a Blackberry

I then clicked on the link where the full recipe was shown. It is a page run by someone primarily to sell slimming products targeted at the fairer sex. Beneath the recipe was written `copy-paste', meaning that the page administrator had copied the recipe (and presumably the pic) from elsewhere. I did further search on Google and found that the recipe/article is actually an app on Google Play.

So how do I feel that a pic of mine is being used by someone else? I'm not sure yet... in one sense it feels fine that one's handiwork is good enough to be used by others. On the other hand, a simple credit to the original source would be nice too.

Anyway, just to let you know that the stall where I had this plate of CKT is no longer operating, or perhaps has moved to another location. A bit sad, really... because the taste wasn't too bad. Comparable to the ones I have tried in Butterworth and Bukit Mertajam in Penang.

The previous year food adventure in pictures

Let's start the first post of the new year with a collection of photos taken during my makan-makan adventure throughout 2012. Some of the pics have appeared previously while some were taken from my FB album, so please excuse the repetition.

It is slightly different from the pictorial series I did in 2010 and 2011, which was what I had initially intended for this year as well... but when I browsed through my picture library, I decided that a series of delectable food pics would probably make an interesting entry. So the following are my selection...

Lamb Kabsah. Banafee Village, Jln Abdullah Tahir JB - Jan 2012

Lamb mandey. Wadi El Arab Restaurant, Majidee JB - Jan 2012

Crab in salted eggs. Permata Senibong, JB - Feb 2012

Tropika Steamboat & Grill. Setia Tropika, JB - Feb 2012

Grilled lemon chicken. Aunty Aini's, Nilai - Feb 2012

Mayami burger. Planetz Burger roadside stall, Taman Munsyi JB - May 2012

Nasi dagang. Stall at Mersing Kanan, Mersing - June 2012

Mee bandung udang special. Stall next to Sg Rambah, Pontian - Aug 2012

Mee bandung, satay and coffee. Wah San Kopitiam, Muar - Sep 2012

Rice and chicken kebab. Del's Kitchen, Tmn Pelangi JB - Nov 2012

D' Chagar Steamboat & Grill. Tmn Molek, JB - Nov 2012

Nasi padang JJ. Tmn Johor Jaya, JB - Nov 2012

Briyani hyderabad. Kempas, JB - Dec 2012

Grilled prawns. Din's BBQ Station, Nusa Bestari, JB - Dec 2012

Mee udang black pepper. Roadside stall at Kg Tiram Duku, Gelang Patah, JB - Dec 2012

Char Kuey Teow. Jalan Rawa Tmn Perling, JB - Dec 2012

Update 09.01.13 : I've gone to Tropika Steamboat & Grill (the 4th pic above) twice since my last visit but they were not open. I think they may have `closed shop'.

Weekend family picnic

I have previously written of this holiday place called Warisan Bernam Agro Resort owned by a brother-in-law of mine, located on the banks of Sungai Bernam that forms the border between Selangor and Perak.

We went there again yesterday after last going there more than a year ago. My BIL invited in-laws from his wife's side of the family and we had a lovely picnic by the riverside. The weather also played its part... except for a five-minute brief spell of rain, it was a wonderfully dry day all along. The kids and parents had a splashing time dipping themselves in the cool running river water.

I had a brief dip in the river myself but spent most of the time trying to improve my photo-taking skills in capturing landscape and macro shots. Here are some pics from yesterday's outing.

Warisan Bernam Agro Resort, front view of A-shaped huts

Stream running at the rear

Purple flowers, but donno the name lah...

Smoky picnic site...

And the smoke coming from this BBQ pit

Bee on purple flower

Grasshopper