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Today was a lucky day for me. After 8 attempts, I've managed to photograph the elusive Oriental darter here in UPM Serdang. It perched for about a minute before flying off. The Oriental darter or Indian darter is a water bird of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. It has a long and slender neck with a straight, pointed bill and, like the cormorant, it hunts for fish while its body is submerged in water. This bird is listed as Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List (BirdLife International, 2016). These images were shot with my SONY a9 with SEL200600G and SEL14TC. Thank you for viewing.    #sony #sonymalaysia #a9 #SEL200600G #SEL14TC #alpha #NurIsmailPhotography #madebyluminar #skylum #skylummalaysia #luminar #topazlabs #urbanbirding
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 Today, I had the pleasure of sharing some of my knowledge and experiences during my photography trips. There were 10 participants who attended the workshop, which was held at SONY Store, The Curve Mutiara Damansara. The first session was the sharing of some of my favourite images from my travels to date, the most recent being my trip to Iceland and Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java. The second session was mainly sharing the a7RIV, a7RIII & a7III camera settings. The participants were also shown the tips & techniques in Pixel Shift Multi-Shoot as well as Interval Shooting for timelapse. The workshop finished at 4:45pm with a group photo. Thank you SONY Malaysia for the venue and thank you to all participants who made it there. Till next time, stay tuned for the next workshop!  The Jambu Fruit Dove is a plump dove with a small head and a small yellow or orange beak. It measures around 27 cm in length (Strange & Jeyarajasingam, 1993). Scientifically known as Ramphiculus jambu, the Jambu Fruit Dove eats fruits directly from the tree or from the ground if the fruits have been dropped by hornbills or monkeys. This species occurs in the Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra where it can be found in the primary and secondary forest from lowlands to low hills up to 1,100m. Both sexes have an orange-yellow bill, red legs and pale ring around the eyes. Its feathers are downy soft and very colourful. The colour of male is saved from garishness by marvellous pink-flushed ivory breast; dark green above, carmine on head, ivory white below with pink centre to its breast. While the female is duller dark green all over but with a dull carmine face, pale abdomen and buff beneath its tail. Here are male, male juvenile and female Jambu fruit dove:     Hooded Pitta (Pitta sordida) is a species of bird belonging to the family Pittidae. It is a small bird measuring around 16–19 cm. It has a black hood with brown crown and in contrast, it has a bright green mantle, breast, and upper belly. It also has a red lower belly and under tail coverts. The population distribute throughout the Oriental region, Australasia, which encompasses Myanmar and southern China through Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula. P. sordida is an uncommon passage migrant and winter visitor, south to Singapore. It forages on the forest floor and feeds on worms, insects, and other invertebrates. The population has declined rapidly due to habitat destruction and cage bird trade (IUCN, 2016). Here are some photographs of the Hooded pitta, shot with my SONY a9 and the SEL200600G lens.    #sony #sonymalaysia #a9 #SEL200600G #alpha #NurIsmailPhotography #madebyluminar #skylum #skylummalaysia #luminar #topazlabs #urbanbirding
I made a trip down to Johor Bahru during the Christmas holidays and stayed in JB until Saturday 28.12.2019. Took the opportunity to photograph the Common kingfisher (Alced atthis) at one of the parks in the JB city. Alcedo atthis is commonly known as Common Kingfisher. It belongs to family Alcedinidae. This species is the smallest of open country kingfishers that are familiar throughout Europe and Asia. It can be found in water’s edge in open-country swamps, old mining pools, aquaculture ponds, and mangroves. As for this species, both male and female are almost identical except for an orange colouration with a black tip on the lower part of the female’s bill. The colour of their wings and upperparts is blue-green, while the rump and tail are bright blue. It also has bright orange underparts with a small, white bib underneath their bill, on the throats (Strange & Jeyarajasingam, 1993). The common kingfisher feeds mainly on fish and invertebrates and will fly rapidly, low over the water, and hunt for the fish from riverside perches, occasionally hovering above the water's surface.     It is my privilege to inform that I'll be conducting my second SONY Alpha Workshop at Masjid Sri Sendayan, near Seremban, Negeri Sembilan (GPS: 2.684528, 101.845263) this Saturday, 14.12.2019. Registration for the event is being handled by SONY Malaysia through the event website: https://www.sony.com.my/microsite/events/imaging. Similar to my workshop at the River of Life, this time around, there will be several SONY camera bodies as well as lenses on loan for the participants. Participation was low probably due to the wet weather at the earlier part of the evening. The following were some of the images taken on a sunny day a few days before the workshop:      I just came back from a short 4D3N trip to Bukit Tinggi, Indonesia yesterday (09.12.2019). I decided to travel light for this trip, hence, I had requested for a loan unit of SONY RX10 Mark IV (RX10M4), a solid and smart all-in-one compact camera with pro-style operability, which packs enough groundbreaking innovations for even professionals to marvel at, from ultra-fast AF system of its kind, to legendary optics throughout its 25x zoom range, to extraordinarily precise and powerful image processing. Please click HERE for details about the camera. The RX10M4 comes with Eye AF for human and animal, making it a great travelling camera for street as well as wildlife photography, especially for those wanting to have minimal gear. The camera also comes with high-speed 24fps shooting with AF/AE tracking and silent electronic shutter when silence is required. What intrigued me the most is the 35mm equivalent rancge of 24mm-600mm and aperture range from f/2.8 -f/4, which had allowed me to capture some birds during the trip. I took 3 nos. of SONY FP-NW50 batteries along with me, which could last me about half-a-day of heavy shooting. In summary, the SONY RX10M4 is surely something worth considering if you are looking for an all-in-one pro-level camera from SONY. The only downside is the battery life Here are some of the bird images taken with the RX10M4.  Name: Little cuckoo dove Scientific: Macropygia ruficeps Malay: Tekukur Api Family: Columbidae  Name: Olive-backed sunbird Scientific: Cinnyris jugularis Malay: Kelicap Bukit Family: Nectariniidae  Name: Javan munia Scientific: Lonchura leucogastroides Malay: Pipit Jawa Family: Estrildidae  Name: White-breasted woodswallow Scientific: Artamus leucorynchus Family: Artamidae  Name: Long-tailed shrike
Scientific: Lanius schach Malay: Tirjup Ekor Panjang Family: Laniidae Took a drive to Lanchang with my main target to photograph the Rufous-collared kingfisher. Alhamdulillah, the little beauty perched for three times, giving me the opportunity to shoot it from various angles. Actenoides concretus is commonly known as the rufous-collared kingfisher. The adult has medium size with a proportioned head. The rufous-collared kingfisher has a shaggy crest, large and thick bill, blue head and back, and white throat and collar. It's underbody is white and has blue band across its chest. Both male and female has a slight differences appearance, where the male does not have the rufous band across its white abdomen, but present in its flanks. An addition for the female, some feather tips along the blue breast are rufous. Their diet includes fishes, insects, scorpions and small snakes. The rufous-collared kingfisher is confined to the Sundaic lowlands, which include Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Brunei Darussalam (Jeyarajasingam & Pearson, 2012). It was regionally extinct in Singapore. Its habitat constitutes the closed canopy forest and regenerating logged forest. Due to forest loss, forest fires and land conversion, this species is listed as Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List (BirdLife International, 2016). This time around, only the male appeared. I'll be making more trips here until I manage to photograph the more beautiful female bord.      The KL River of Life with G Master Lens workshop was conducted at Gloria Jeans Cafe, Agro Bank at 4:30pm. The weather was quite bright when I start the workshop, however, halfway through, it began to pour heavily. The turn out was quite good with 14 participants and the workshop was coordinated by YL Camera Services Sdn Bhd and supported by SONY Malaysia. I took the opportunity to share with the participants on how to edit night photography while waiting for the rain to subside.   Had the pleasure and privilege of attending the sharing session by SONY Imaging Ambassador, Mr. Mark Galer during SONY Alpha Full Frame Life 1.0 event held this weekend in Ipoh & Taiping. Mark had shared his wealth of knowledge and experience using SONY cameras and lenses through his presentation of his portfolio. He had also shared the camera settings that he used with the participants. Among the takeaways from his presentation is the lighting technique called "Open Door Technique" where natural lights brings out the subject from the darker background. Mark also shared his experiences with the SEL85F14GM, SEL135F18GM and SEL100F28GM lenses in capturing his street and portrait photography. One thing that I learn from Mark is that most of his portrait shots were shot in landscape mode. Mark also shared his composition tips for portraits, which includes exploring horizontal framing, move closer to the subject (crop top of head), placement of the eyes of subject, use of the Golden Ratio, figure ground separation, positioning of horizon lines in respect of the shoulder and the open door technique. The participants were treated with a sumptuous dinner at Restoran Simpang Tiga here at the city centre. After dinner, Mark had guided the participants at the night shooting session at Weil Hotel, Ipoh, where we stayed for the night . On the next day, the participants were briefed by Mark Galer on the task for the day. Human interest photo shoot at Tin Alley. He shared the recommended camera settings for the participants to use. Five locations were identified i.e. man with his pottery works, model ship builder, rattan furniture maker, Chinese tea brewer and bamboo blinds maker. My setup for the task was a7RIII with my SEL1635GM and a9 with my SEL100400GM lens. We break for lunch at Plan B near Ipoh Kong Heng area. After lunch, the participants proceeded back to Tin Alley for model photo shoot. It was time for me to travel back to KL in time for a family dinner. The rest of the participants proceeded on to Taiping for day 3 of the event. Here are some of the headshots of Mark Galer using my SONY a9 and SEL100400GM lens. Post processed in Adobe Photoshop CC.   Some of the photographs from the event. #sonymalaysia #sonyalpha #fullframelife #sonyalphafullframelife2019 #markgaler #gmaster
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AuthorThis is the photography journey of Nur Ismail Photography where all the experiences from this year onwards will be shared with the audience. In collaboration with NiSi Malaysia, Leofoto, SONY Malaysia and Skylum Software. Thanks for stopping by! :-) Archives
January 2020
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