The View From My Kitchen Balcony

My kitchen balcony has all the elements of good feng shui. How do I know this? Quite simply, the term feng shui literally translates as “wind-water” in English and in that respect, the balcony gets plenty of wind, and rain water, sometimes both :). I’m an early riser, a habit that has followed me since school days and on more than a few occasions I had been blessed with picturesque sunrises especially when you factor in addition of the seasonal flock of white egrets flying in formation over my house.

Seria-morning-landscape

Pay attention to where the sun is at the bottom of the picture in between the roofs and you’ll see where the following photo was photographed. I donated this framed and mounted piece to help raise money for the earthquake victims of Haiti and Chile.

Majestic Sunrise: The Perks of Getting Up Early

I’m an early riser. It happens when people you live with get up for work and school. Like any other morning, I walk into the busy kitchen to see the kids having their breakfast and my domestic helper preparing breakfast for the rest of us. Today, unlike most recent mornings, the scene outside the kitchen window stopped me in my track. I ran into the studio, grabbed the 5D Mark II + EF 100-400mm, headed out to the kitchen balcony just in time to capture the sun rising above the silhouetted landscape. The last similar sunrise I captured ended up as an auction piece for a Haiti & Chile Earthquake Fundraiser (see second photo).

click on image to see larger version of this magnificent sunrise

A theme appropriately selected by Liesbeth for the auction, this sunrise piece represents the new
dawn
for the earthquake victims of Haiti and Chile as generous donations pour in from all over
the world
to help rebuild their lives.

© Jan Shim Photography

Breaking Dawn: The First Light on Board Royal Brunei Airlines

This incredible breaking dawn moment was captured on Feb 14 2010 at 5.53am on the first day of Chinese New Year which happened to be also Valentine’s Day. With our flight leaving Brunei airport at around 4.10am most passengers were fast asleep following an exhausting reunion dinner just the night before. I can’t quite recall why I wasn’t sleeping but I would have most certainly kicked myself silly had some other passenger capture this and I didn’t. Quite an amazing first light of the Lunar “Tiger” New Year 2010 — I first shared this photo on Feb 19 on Facebook.

Click on photo to see a larger version (1000px wide)