Through the Viewfinder: A Sabahan Photographer's Point of View: January 2009

These are some shots I took during the pre-Chinese New Year event organised by the Kota Kinabalu City Hall this evening. I brought along my small tripod just in case there were some shots which required it but it turned out I had no need for it. Well, at least it wasn't heavy.

All the performances were done on stage and most were by school children. The lights were the usual colourful stage lights, and though there were moments of dim lighting, in general I'd say the lights were bright enough for general shooting. But even then, I still had to occasionally push my ISO to 800 even when shooting at f/2.8. Having become more comfortable with my 135mm and more confident with the focusing, I decided to use it throughout. All were shot using available light, and while there were quite a number of less than well executed shots, I'm quite pleased with the shots I did manage to get.

Here are the picks of the bunch. Let me know which do you think is the shot of the night. See if I agree with you! :)

The school in which I teach at had their cross-country race today, and I was the designated photographer. Ain't that great? I decided to use this opportunity to get lots of practice with my 135mm prime lens. I'm really starting to grow on this lens. I like it because for the focal length, I get f/2.8, which I really like. And the bokeh is quite nice, too! The only downside is that it takes a bit more time to focus as it's a manual focus lens, but I still enjoy using it. So, most of the shots below were shot with this lens. The only other lens I used was the kit 18-55mm lens for it's wider angle.

There'll be 18 shots in all. It's gonna take a while to load!