Environmental Portraits: In Touch With Nature

It’s so easy to get caught up with the daily grind of office work and school work, term exams, projects and what not that we lose touch with the exhilarating beauty of nature right in our own backyards. We make it a point to alternate between badminton, swimming at the club, running at OGDC, PE at school and trekking at Sungai Liang — to keep the body and mind healthy.

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I usually bring along my PowerShot G11 coz you just never know what photo opportunity presents itself. This morning, I was inspired to take this environmental portrait of the family — spur of the moment stuff brought on by the fresh morning air.

On a foot trail inside the Sungai Liang forest with cousin Daniel with my kids Jewel and Jamie.

Butterfly Sanctuary at the Palmetum Garden Sungai Liang | More Ray of Light Moments Captured at Wasai Kadir in Labi | Photographing Somboi-Somboi Pitcher Plants in the Sungai Liang Rainforest

In order to at least freeze a few of the termites, I shot this hand-held at 1/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO6400 with the EF100mm Hybrid IS given the lack of usable available light. Click on photo for more info.

Bokeh is the blur or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image. If you're wondering how I got this shot, click on image to visit blog post for more info.

Capturing ethereal moments like this makes bringing along my Powershot G11 more than worthwhile.

Pedometer: How Far Did You Walk or Run Today?

There’s a national drive to get people to exercise more for one obvious reason — to stay healthy. I recently started to take long walks and short runs to build stamina to improve the game I love — badminton. If you regularly walk or run at the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) in the evenings, here are screenshots from a free iPhone app I use on the iPad 2: Pedometer covering the distance of the synthetic track and distance from the car park to the Billionth Barrel Monument.

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If you regularly walk or jog on the synthetic track at the Oil & Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) in Seria, you may like to know that one lap on the path measures 0.519 Km and takes 685 steps to complete, according to my stride. The Pedometer app also determines that a lap takes me 5:43 mins to complete during which time 24.6 calories are burned.

Distance from OGDC rear car park (first concrete bench) to the end of paved track at zebra crossing.

Add another 0.263 km (263 metres) from zebra crossing to the Billionth Barrel Monument structure.

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Distance from OGDC rear car park (first concrete bench) to the Billionth Barrel Monument structure.

OGDC PARK BRINGS COMMUNITY CLOSER

You know you’re getting old when work is a lot less fun and fun is a lot more work!
— Joan Rivers

NO, THIS ISN’T AN EPISODE OF PRISON BREAK. But people have long been known to come here to escape the confines of their homes, offices and the monotonicity of the daily grind. The new attractions at the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre (OGDC) have proven very popular especially the outdoor basketball court and also the skateboard park which is just a stone’s throw away. Seen below, a rather over-engineered basketball board that exceeds NBA standards whichever way you look at it. Excellent idea nonetheless as the “cage” helps catch stray balls. Basked in the beaming sunset, this fast action sports make for dramatic silhouettes combined with the wider-than-life ultrawide angle shots!

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

I love how the player’s hair is all over the place in this shot!

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

Talking about bringing community closer, one jogger brought this little puppy to the park and it wandered into the basketball court. He is one CHICK MAGNET. Some people try so hard to get attention and the sheer ‘cute factor’ of the puppy alone had girls all over him without breaking a sweat. So much so some of the basketball players stopped mid-game in awe! 🙂

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

This evening, we returned to the basketball court slightly earlier than the regular players so Jamie and Jewel were able to shoot some hoops  before we were benched to watch. The kids stayed behind the cage where it’s safe while I took to the sideline and took over a dozen slow shutter panned shots to achieve these effects.

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

© Jan Shim Photography

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