Brunei Darussalam Celebrates 29th National Day 2013

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.

BHC_JANSHIM_NationalDay

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

SHIMWORLD: An Epic 2012 in Review

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.

WP2012Stats

2012 has been a literally 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.

The Grace of a Princess

To say I’ve had a hectic couple of months is an understatement of sorts – I’ve never had this many number of food photography assignments in this short space of time. In between exhausting commutes and accumulating shutter counts, I’m honoured and delighted to discover that Her Royal Highness Pengiran Anak Isteri Pengiran Anak Sarah posted a photo I took of her as she graced the Toyota Classics event as Guest of Honour. It’s awesome to be acknowledged by our beloved princess!

Click on image to visit HRH’s Official Facebook page | more images of Toyota Classics

HRH Pengiran Anak Isteri Pengiran Anak Sarah shakes hand with flower girl on arrival at Toyota Classics

This year’s Toyota Classics 2012 event falls on November 10 at a new venue — the Arts Centre, Jerudong International School and I’m going to be covering the event as official photographer for the 5th year running. Toyota Classics 2012 features Conductor Joji Hattori, Guitarist Soichi Muraji and The Vienna Orchestra.