The only thing that puts me out… is the drive inside me!
Oh yeah I must be crazy.
But I believe it's my destiny.
What am I on about? Marcel Woods is what I'm on about coming down to Australia for a short club tour. Was privileged enough to be covering this event and I must way I was impressed by what the Masif Saturdays and Genesis guys did to the venue. Quite a bit of effort into the production with LCD screens, more lasers and lights, walking into the main room, you know it's gonna be a good night.
Start of the night
Marcel Woods, I know him for being a little bit dark, driving and rather electric, a few of my favourites would be Advanced, Inside Me and The bottle.
Here's inside me:
In short, I had some pretty big expectations and when he started off it was amazing, but a few songs later and I'm thinking no way... (not the good no way either). I start to hear the lyrics of something rather familiar, something rather cheesy. I hear 'I turn the music up, I got my records on...' and think what the fuck. Now don't get me wrong, I love Coldplay and the remixes of Every Tear is a waterfall, but this was Marcel Woods! How does a guy that produces songs like Advanced and The bottle play this crap in his set?!
He makes up for it by dropping some killer darker and electric (note electric, not electro) and faith in humanity is restored. See the video below:
But not for long a familiar intro comes a long, it builds a lot slower than usual, I'm thinking oh no... but then it starts to shift and change and I'm thinking perhaps Funkagenda's What The Fuck, but I'm wrong. Turns out, it was LEVELS and I'm standing there with the biggest what the fuck look on my face. Some more wtf is him dropping Warp by Steve Aoki, see video below:
We're in a club gig here not an Aussie festival, I expect hard driving trance from this man, look at the photo on his album... that does not look like the face of a man who plays LEVELS!
Cover for reference
Overall it was an okay night, definitely some highlights during the night, some remix of 'hardcore vibes' definitely brought out the kid in me, definitely never thought I'd hear that one out live.
The extra production at Space made for some nice photos and many thanks to the techs there for helping me out by adjusting the par cans pointing at the DJ from a horrible blue wash to something more neutral. Made the photos a million times better.
Click here fore the rest of the Marcel Woods photos
Older photos – part 2
Next up we have my partial attempt at Sculptures by the Sea at Bondi Beach, partial in the fact that I only got half way before having to leave to head to dinner. Definitely need to make more of an effort to go, more than once preferably as it's one of those events that is always so much fun (photographically). So much choice of subject and in varying environment makes it a challenge to capture something different.
Would love some comments on this photo, bit of an experiment with the composition and the post (and funnily enough, not even a sculpture itself!)
Below is my take on Sculptures by the Sea 2011.
Click for the rest of Sculptures 2011
So the reason the photos from above were cut short was the need to attend Steve's and Janet's birthday at Hurricanes in Darling Harbour. Photos from the night below, nothing too fancy seeing as I only had my 35mm f/2 and no flash with me (I've been pretty lazy these days).
Click for pics of Steve and Janet's 23rd
Older photos – part 1
So I have a whole bunch of photos in the backlog that I never went through and figured I should put them up before touching the photos from my Asia trip. These were from back in October of last year, quite a few months ago, this is part 1 of 2, I'll have a couple of more galleries for November as well.
First up we have some photos from Jimmy and Winnie's 23rd at Encasa where we delighted ourselves a raft of various Tapas and Spanish dishes. Quite liked this restaurant and the food was pretty amazing, so good I attempted at making my own. That dish was the potatas bravas, basically fried potato cubes with a spicy tomato salsa and garlic sauce/mayonnaise.
Click for Jimmy and Winnie's 23rd B'day pics
Second is some photos from out little night out at the night noodle markets. It was a fun night involving a whole variety of Asian foods from noodles to seafood, buns and even Japanese pancakes! Mix in a little wine and good company and it was a lovely evening. To top it off, we did a sugar hit at Spiedo inside Westfield Sydney, quite tasty 
.
Night Noodle Markets 2011
That's it for now, check back soon for part 2 and hopefully some photos from my Asia trip.
Defqon.1 2011 – Photos
September means that time of the year again, you all know it. Defqon.1! Was photographing the event again this year and it never ceases to impress. The quality and effort which is put into this even is simply stunning and from this point of view, one of Australia's best festivals.
Defqon.1
I don't think I'm the happiest with my photos this year, for some reason felt like I was lacking a direction or purpose with these photos. Felt like I wasn't too sure what I should be aiming for, but it's all part of the process. Definitely with next year will have a bit of a think of what the aim is for the day and execute.
Anyway less babbling, the day itself?! Fabulous, the weather was great and the sun was out to play. Unfortunately for us photographers, we're stuck with a black shirt, pretty cool shirt, but I don't have a pic of the front to show you, it's got this year's stage in a wireframe at the front, very cool.
Defqon.1 crew, don't mess with me 
Note to self, get some bigger arms for next year, would make a photo like this much better. Like usual with defqon, it's pretty big with a whole heap of stages available to suit everyone's taste in hard electronic music.
The blue stage had a interesting setup but it's a shame that it was along a dusty patch and there was dust being kicked up everywhere! Not a good feeling after you've been sweating it out from fist pumping all day. The white car bonnets acting as a pseudo projector screen, very cool idea.
Blue stage
Black stage was a real pain in the ass and it was more like a red stage, inside red lights simply flooded the stage making it next to impossible to get a decent photo. Although as night fell, the lasers in here were simply spectacular, very bright and very vivid.
Black Stage
The rest you can check out in the rest of the photos, but there's no way I'd be neglecting the red stage, simply massive and definitely a work of art.
Red stage
Looks much better at night.
Red stage by night
For the rest of the gallery, click this epic photo below.
Click here for the rest of the photos
Enjoy the photos 
and see you again next year 
My Graduation
Last week would be one of the last times I'd ever be back at Uni and it was for my graduation. After a strenuous 4 and a half years of study, it was time to claim my prize and take home that precious piece of paper that would certify me as a bachelor.
Ceremony was an early 10am start meaning to register and collect my gown, I'd have to be at uni before 9am, something I hadn't done in a long time. Certainly don't miss the terrible traffic driving up.
Waiting for my gown
Once inside, I was already feeling hungry and the graduation ceremony was to be a big one, the entire auditorium was full and the number of people graduating overfilled the front rows into a section of the audience. There's a sense of nervous-ness as you stand there waiting for your name to be called out for you to collect your testamur, as for me, I was a little unique in getting a Bachelor of Information Systems (as opposed to a Bachelor of Science I would initially sought out to achieve. Quite lucky to have graduated with a couple of people I knew, I had feared it was to be a lonely graduation as I was a bit of a lagger. Congrats also to Winnie Tran, Suching Wong and Sumeet Kukar.
Collecting the testamur
After the ceremony, it was the obligatory rounds of photos across the various landmarks of the university. First is one with the family.
Family photo
Then the library lawn (with the UNSW library in the background)
Library lawn stargate
Then the lookout above the quad, as well as the obligatory flying cape photo.
I can fly!
And at last, the main walkway, or in this case, being on top of the globe!
On top of the world!
To top it off, you've gotta have some drinks to end the day, and this would be my chance to check out this white house place they built while I was no longer at uni during the day time.
Punch at the white house
Thanks to Jimmy Lam for the photos, you can see the rest of the album below, there's also a few photos of my cousin who handed in his thesis, marking the completion of the work required for his PhD, so congrats to him!
Click here for the rest of the photos
To end the day would be some dinner and more drinks and generally a good time
Masif Saturdays present Simon Patterson
Saturday night was one of some bangin' trance with tech trance giant Simon Patterson coming down under to Space Nightclub. Late start to the night with Simon scheduled to come on at 2am, but not actually arriving until 2.30. Not neccessarily a bad thing as I had later discovered with a DJ by the name of Jordan Suckley ripping up the decks.
Was very impressed by his style and his manic ways of creating a storm via Traktor and cutting up beats like a samurai, even bringing some scratching along. Simply stunning and I was gobsmacked.
Jordan Suckley
Simon Patterson came on with his thumping style shortly after and he seemed to love every moment of it. His set was the usual hard and fast and unfortunately I didn't stick around for the whole thing, so not sure how he progressed later on into the night, was pretty tired by 4am.
Patterson on the decks
He seemed to loved the crowd with smiles all round and and strange addiction to the camera.
Patterson and the camera
For the rest of the gallery, click the image below.
More pics here
Another year goes on…
and my liver takes another pounding and so does my memory. Had a killer night on Friday with plenty of holes in my memory but definitely a great time celebrating my 22nd birthday, feel so old! No longer able to be in denial and telling myself that I'm still 21. Celebrated the night with Lily Tran at the ever-so-classy venue of Sanctuary Hotel, because you know, the drinks are cheap. Here are the first lot of photos from my DIY photobooth consisting of my D700, flash and 17-35mm f/2.8 lens and a remote trigger, perfect.
Click here for the photobooth photos
Set up seemed to work okay, I think it didn't fire a few times but in the end I was just too drunk to notice but it seems like it did its job.
Magic City 2011 – It’s Showtime – Photos
So after snapping over 1800 photos, I've been able to cull that down to a lovely 250 or so for your viewing pleasure. It was a much better night than I had expected (probably because the hardstyle started later than usual.
Click the image below to see all the photos:
Thanks for looking.
Magic City 2011 – Preview
Last Saturday night I was one of the photographers working at Magic City and it was a rather awesome night, usually not my kind of music, but this time it was pretty good. JamX aka DuMonde brought back a lot of memories, especially my younger years when I started listening to trance, quite a few songs I never thought I'd ever hear played again so that was rather awesome. I don't know why I always seem to clock up some many photos with these events, always makes going through them so difficult, especially when they only want 100-150 photos.
So here's a little preview of the shots from the night.
Production
Lasers from the ground
Lasers from the air
Crowd
On stage
Other thing that was particularly special about the night was this shot...
View from the roof
Yes, that is from the roof of the Hordern, spectacular view there. Guess that's the privilege of being a photographer, and getting your own dressing room is nice too .
Photographer's room
2011 begins, and I’m almost there
So after this post I'll be a couple of photos from being up-to-date, but since I stopped blogging for a while until now, quite a few things have changed, I'm finally in my final semester at Uni with another two subjects to go (seriously can't wait til it's over) and in addition to that, I had started full time work. Such a drastic change from being able to laze around and bludge to getting up before 7am getting ready to catch the train every day to work. Days at work vary, some insanely hectic to others where you're not too busy. Team's been great, everyone around is heaps friendly and always willing to help out and answer questions. I won't mention the awesome start to the year, walking out of the Etihad Stadium with a huge smile on my face, if you weren't there, you wouldn't understand.
Deb's birthday wasn't too far away from the start and I was there to take a few snaps.
Next up was my man Mike's 22nd birthday. For some reason this kid decided not to have a 21st birthday but instead, opts for a large 22nd! I just don't get him sometimes, but it was a great party despite me not being able to get back in at 12 as Aurorar bar sucks and no re-entry after 12 is permitted. Cover photo is in black and white because I'm moody and all that .
Tang turns 22
Final set of photos to complete this post is little Yvonne's 22nd birthday, celebrated with plenty of food.
Yvn's 22nd
So just another post and I'll be good to go, apologies to those waiting for photos (if you want them quick pay me ).
Results of my mango pancake adventure
So, I think I did pretty well with the mango pancakes considering that I was completely clueless, but will perfect them next time we’ve got some nice mangos. Pictures are below, they could have been presented better, but here’s some evidence that I made them, haha.
1. The pancake and the filling
Final product
Other thing of interest today, the mailman finally delivered the GPS logger I had ordered, I bought the i-gotu GT-600 and the plan is to have it on with me at all times while I’m on holiday to Japan/Korea and it will log exactly where I’ve been. The purpose of this is so I can attach some location information to every single photo that I take, either allowing me to plot them on a map or simply let me go back and see where the photo was taken if I forget. Much better solution than carrying a notepad and noting down image file names and location.
VSA Team Day 2010
Photos from the VSA team day, it was a great day out with beautiful weather and plenty of fun and friendly faces. Plenty of fun games and activities as well as some serious discussion about what VSA is and what we can do for you.
Photos:
Sefton Year 10 formal – 2009
On Friday the 27th of November, I shot a year 10 formal from Sefton, it was quite a night of drama with the event coordinator not being happy about my presence as there was already a hired photographer, after being informed that I would not be allowed to take photos, I had to investigate, it was laughable for me to not be able to shoot photos despite having a ticket to the formal. After a while, a missed call was return from the person in charge of the formal, all was cleared and I was allowed to resume taking photos. The hired photographer was very professional was a nice person to chat to and as expected, the legal threats were from her boss and not herself. In the end, the shots turned out okay and still ended witha nice number of shots despite missing about an hours shooting time. Photos are below but locked for the Sefton students only.
VSA UNSW BBQ #4
Yesterday was the fourth VSA barbeque held by VSA UNSW and the first one I brought my camera to. It was a nice day with the sun out (none of the rain that was forecasted) and it was good fun socialising over a sausage or some nem nuong. Plenty of people turning up for a feed and it wasn't restricted to very sexy asians, thanks to all that organised it, nice excuse to leave work early as well. Looking forward to the next one whenever it may be. Pictures from the day below:
VSA Cruise 2009
It's the aftermath of the biggest booze cruise that I know of and I'm feeling quite okay, but then again I don't usually get hung over. That cruise was the annual VSA Cruise and it was lovely night out this time round, like it usually is. I mean what can be better than a boatful of sexy asians, lots and lots of pizza, great music and most importantly, a continuous supply of alcohol throughout the night. All for fifty bucks. That's pretty awesome. The theme this year was Vegas and everyone on board was looking schmick as ever.
The long-awaited photos from my camera on the night are below:
(Thanks to Ngothanh and An for contributing to some of these photos )
My night...?
I am bloody tired from only have 3 hours sleep in a squished up bed in an apartment which ended up costing more than expected. But the cruise, what can I say, was pretty damn good. Drinks all round and I think everyone was quite responsible as the bar didn't close til quite late I believe, meaning more fun for everyone. Lots of familiar faces everyone making it a wicked night, cheers to Huy and the rest of the VSA UTS crew as well as anyone else who helped out with the night.