Malakoff 12km Run 2009

After Mizuno Wave Run 11km 2009 in October, I have decided to participate in Malakoff 12km Run. So today is the day. This morning woke up at 4.45am and car pool with running mates to Hartamas. We reached Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort at 6am. The run was nicely organised and set up. Mobile toilets were available to cater for runners. The DJ kept providing information reminding the runners of the time & etc. Compared to Mizuno Run, this was better organised & did not create any chaoes.

At 7.05am, 12km run was flag off. The first 1km was already uphill. 12km runners are supposed to run 2 laps while 7km runners will do 1 lap. During the 2 to 4 km, I had sore legs (just like the feeling of acids accumulating in both legs). Luckily after 4km the pain started to go off and I had better running and got back to my usual pace.

The weather was nice, cloudy day without hot sun. This helped my run easier though the route is killing with many uphills. There are 2 steep uphills where I was entirely walking instead of running despite having training few weeks before the race at Double Hill. Anyway, there is always room for improvement right?

I managed to finish the run within the qualifying time and the timing was better than my first run in Mizuno Run. Nevertheless, this is not my PB as I have clocked better timing during training. However, I really enjoyed today's run, such a nice weather, nice company & excellent organiser. We even had our free breakfast (tau foo fah and mee mamak) and unlimited water supply. The finisher medal is nice too :)

We had our 2nd hearty breakfast of satisfying nasi lemak in Uptown. Yummy yummy, and time to rest for a day. Training to be continued later after enough of rest.....zzzz

Running for body and soul

I always wonder why there are people who love to run. They can just run and run , be it in short distance or in marathon and half marathon. My sister is one of them, and she runs almost every half marathon, marathon ond never fails to go training every weekend. I never think I will be able to be one of them, sacrificing nice weekends sleep for running.

Today I have just completed a 12km run at Kenny Hill (Double Hill). Don't know why it is called Double Hill, but there are not only double hills, there are many hills! I began to understand why they love running. It feels so good after the morning refreshing run, despite tired muscles and hurting ankle.

Running is not competing with others. Running is for ourselves, strengthening the mind, having a direction & go for it. Sometimes we always think that we couldn't pass the hills and the road ahead anymore, the body and feet gave in the way, but the most powerful is actually our mind. If we tell ourselves we can do it, we can. That's what I learnt from today's running. If this can be applied to our daily life, we can be a stronger person.

Hence, run, my friend, run for your body, mind and soul...

And what could be nicer having a nice big breakfast after the run with good buddies.... :)

Always there

When the sky turns grey,
The sunshine fades away,
Take my hopes away from my heart,
When I turn around, I realize I still have you by my side,
Standing there and never turns away,
I am grateful, that I found you always there

Alone, and still stand strong

~There are times when troubles come,
Sadness and pain fill the heart,
And yet I never give up,
But face it all with my heart,
Here I am, alone, and still stand strong~

Dedicated to all of my beloved sisters (Mei, Leng, Felicia, Miew), wheverever you are, be strong, have faith.
Even if you are alone, but in the heart you are not alone, we are all around you, always.

White Balance Setting

How to adjust the right white balance setting? I always use AWB but the below few shots I experimented with other setting but I am not sure if it was set correctly.

Indoor
Shot #1 - Using "Shade" setting


Shot #2 - Using AWB


Which shot supposed to be the correct WB?

Shot #3 - Using "Shade" setting


Shot #4 - Using AWB

Again, which shot supposed to be the correct WB?

Flower – under a semi-transparent roof. Which one of the below is more natural and nicer?

Shot #5 - Using "Shade" setting

Shot #6 - Edited the WB using Photoshop. The above was the original shot using “shade” setting.

Comments are greatly appreciated.

KL Butterfly Park, a quiet & peaceful place for photography

I bought a zoom lense (50mm-250mm) and need to find a location to test it and so the chosen location was KL Butterfly Park. After paying my RM8 entrance ticket plus RM1 camera fee, it just like entered into another world…..a world of fairy tales….

It was so fascinating to see so many butterflies flying above, around and below you. This place is so green, cooling and refreshing….shaded area with trees, flowers and water ponds. Without any delay, I grab my camera and began chasing butterflies :)

The afternoon sun was not strong, so have to bump up the ISO…

This is the first one I hunted while having its lunch on a tiny pink flower ~ it looks like a Chocolate Tiger species

Spotted another one, not sure what species is this…


Another white lass


This species is “Common Nawab” enjoying pineapple




Another one on the pineapple


The Banded Swallowtail, so it is called. Spotted it on the ground, drinking water I guess…

Species: looks like the Common Bluebottle

Species: looks like The Great Mormon. It was hidden beneath leaves, so it was quite hard to take this shot

Species: The Yellow Grassy Tiger. It was quite far away and had to zoom using 250mm. A bit blurred, this is the best shot I had of it.

Looks like the Striped Blue Crow species. No idea why it was called Blue Crow, as it doesn’t have any blue color on it nor looks similar to a crow.

Un-identified butterfly species

Other than butterflies, there were insects and bugs….

Species: The Palm King

Can you spot it? Another un-identified butterfly species….

The Chocolate Tiger

Red dragonfly. I guess it was having nap as it was very still and on the same spot for very long time.

Black and yellow butterfly

Species: The Great Eggfly

A nice little spot in the park for visitors to rest.

Species: The Cruiser

How did I identify all the names? Well, I browsed Chin’s Butterfly Gallery's website to get their names.....

More and more butterflies….

Just some other random shots after tired of butterflies

I like this particularly, not the butterfly, but the shadow effect

Another beauty...

Little spidey working tirelessly….

After spending approximately 4.5 hours in KL Butterfly Park, it was about time to go home…nevertheless, this won’t be the last visit, it was only the beginning :)

~2009~

Putrajaya Photo Outing

Putrajaya is not only well known as a tourist attraction but also a good photography spot for photo bug like us. Putrajaya is built and designed as the administrative centre of Malaysia with nice buildings, gardens and bridges for fantastic photo shooting.

One fine Saturday we decided to go to Putrajaya for photography. Going into Putrajaya is easy, but once we are in Putrajaya we were lost. Signages are everywhere, but not sure if it is because we are too dumb to read the road signs or because of the misleading signs that lead us to “merry-go round’.

After some joyride, we finally decided to just follow the building landmarks instead……..ah, alas….we spotted a sign pointing to “Putrajaya Lake Club” and quickly made a turn in. It happened there was a wedding ceremony at the club on that day (meaning most of the parking lots were taken off). Soon after squeezing our car in a spot, we marched into the club and hunt for great view. We found a good spot at a tower to shoot the Perdana Putra and Putra Mosque.

Tower at Putrajaya Lake Club. We climbed to the 2nd level to get some good shots


Perdana Putra, Prime Minister's Office




Magnificent Putra Mosque

After about over an hour here, we headed to Taman Botani (Botanical Garden). This was not difficult to find as it is indicated on the road sign.

Taman Botani ~ great building architecture and carving

Palm trees against blue sky

We were in Putrajaya for almost 3 hours. My camera already ran out of battery and so we had to leave. We will definitely come back again for more shootings.