Tiny purple flowers

These are actually tiny little things growing on top of a garden wall. They're not moss, just tiny little plants. I'm quite happy with how the flowers turned out. I even made the top one into a jigsaw puzzle :D 

First batik handiwork

Since I am now camera-less, will have to make do with uploading other artwork, it seems. I still have photos from the UK trip, but have been too busy with work these past weeks. 

This is a batik made in Sg Sireh Homestay, Tanjung Karang, Selangor. It's one of the activities we offered to a group of media reps we had visiting recently and since we already paid for the package, I gave it a go. I have never been very arty, but I have been playing with colours the past few years. Colouring is the IN thing to do these days, you know :) I'll upload snaps of those separately. 

One thing I noticed, it was quite easy to stay within the lines because of the wax outlines. So you just need to worry about getting the right hue for the dyes. And I learnt that the colours fade as it dries, so we need to make the colours darker than you want the end product to be. 

Little alley in Haarlem

Hidden alleys like these are quite common off the main streets. One wonders what treasures are hidden within. Considering the err... questionable services offered in the area, I'm wondering now (a little late though) if that poster at the back was offering something rather risque...

*Photo taken using much loved (but rather beat up) Sony compact camera.

Sidepath marker

There are bicycle paths off the train line. We should do that the next time :) 

Alston train

A diesel engine we rode on that day. Wanted to ride the steam train but that one only comes out on weekends. Oh well, next time then...

The Hills of Alston

This photo didn't pop until auto-correct pumped up the colour. Love the heather covered hills and sheep dotting the pastures below it.

Pensive

Caught him at just the right moment.... was he looking far into the future? We'll never know :) 

La Flora

Thistle

Err... snowdrops? No, not snowdrops.

No idea. some kind of composite bud maybe.

Bloomed version of the above? Could be, right?

Hmm... sweet peas? 

Found a few more close-ups of wildflowers from Alston and lumped them all here... I'm trying to group things rather than load them one at a time because that would take forever. Eventually I may identify and label them all. When, I don't know. I'm too tired to plot and plan these things now ;( Have to concentrate on work... Hopefully I can get a new 2nd hand camera body soon so that I can go out for more excursions. We'll see. Insya-Allah. 

Haarlem Train Station

Because the colours were so dull to start with, I turned this into Black and White.

 then cropped it to landscape. 

There! Looks much nicer, right?

Honeysuckle

At Dove Cottage.

Wild Raspberries

What can I say? I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE red. Especially raspberry red. These wild raspberries were by the tracks in Alston. I never imagined the photo would turn out so nice.  The trip was a month ago and I'm still slowly looking through the thousands of photos I took and finding gems among them. It will keep me happy for a while, since my 1000D is officially dead and I can't go buying another expensive toy immediately. All in good time, will buy myself an upgrade soon, insya Allah :) 

Rosehips

I'm a sucker for rosehips because to me they're SO exotic. Malaysia mana ada rosehips besar2 macam ni. And for some reason I kept remembering an old advertisement selling rosehip syrup... Maybe that's why I get so excited to see the real things. haha... Kelakar kan? Kat sana rosehips ni berlambak kat mana2...Yg ni kat tepi landasan keretapi kat Alston. 

Harebell

Ok, I take maybe 10% credit for this shot because all I did was adjust the dials. The rest was all done by the camera. But I'm really pleased with it. Cantik kan.... :)

An Aster

The shot that makes me love the Canon so much... I love the crisp lines and the bright, bright colour of this aster taken in the Dove Cottage garden.

I'm a little sad that the 1000D is still in a coma and that my attempt to upgrade the firmware did not work. The service centre is closed on weekends and I was already late today so didn't want to make a detour. Will have to go home early tonight, so hopefully can send it for repairs by tomorrow. I'm getting quite addicted to taking photos, especially if they turn out so nicely like this one :) 

Wildflower

Came across these beautiful wildflowers in Lake District but can't seem to find their name. Graham didn't know them either, and he's pretty good... Wish someone could help identify them.  

I like this shot with the grey sky background. 

Pigeons

I have a shitload of photos from my recent trip to UK and Netherlands. Am uploading them on Facebook, but some, I think many won't appreciate much, so will post them here instead.

These birds were strutting near the Imperial War Museum, London. Am rather proud of them because the lighting was low (overcast) and I was doing a lot of manual photography. Can't remember if these were taken in manual mode, though.

Well, I guess thanks are due to my ex-boyfriend who taught me the basics of manual photography. No need to tell him that though, it wasn't a very good breakup :P

Love

Elderly couple in Taman Megah, PJ.

Fungi, KDCF

Reduced

Enhanced

Original

Favourite shot from KDCF yesterday.

Cicada - Fraser's Hill

This fella came to us as we were going up the stairs and landed on the steps. Nice huh?

Spyder Series - Golden Orb Weaver - Fraser's Hill, Malaysia

Wow, have I not updated for that long?? Have not made much use of my cameras for a while, too busy with God knows what. BUT, finally made it up Fraser's Hill on Monday, and got these shots yesterday morning. Am REALLY happy with them. Enjoy!

Tuktuk, Thailand

Date: 20th December 2014

Taken with my phone camera, but somehow it worked. Purely by chance, no special settings whatsoever :)