How 2009 ended

Thary and I followed Dr Sasekumar to Sementa and Kuala Selangor on 28 November. He'd wanted to have a look at the aquaculture centres encroaching on the Kuala Selangor Nature Park, and I wanted to see if I could get my crabs.


Dr Sase photographing the aquaculture ponds.


The largest crab I've ever seen.


We rounded up the day with a stopover at the Kuala Selangor Nature Park, but we couldn't stay long because of the fish and crabs in the car.


The evening of 1 December was spent, first with Ruth at Subway Bangsar, and then with Ruth and her friends at Tea for Two off Jalan Bangkung.


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Meet one of the latest additions to my arsenal. The 28mm f/2.8 AI lens, which was in production from 1974-1981. I bought this unit, scratched, battered and a little dented, second-hand from YL in Pudu, for some RM 300+.

Ken Rockwell is full of praise for this lens:

Like all Nikkor manual focus AI lenses, the Nikon 28mm f/2.8 AI is built to the highest mechanical standards of any lens ever made.

Want one of the sharpest 28mm lenses ever made for your film or FX camera? Want one of Nikon's least expensive lenses available used? Don't mid focusing by hand? Get one of these.

Read his full review here.


Although it's a strictly manual focus lens that won't autofocus and meter on a digital SLR, I decided to pop it onto the D50 for fun. After all, it's trivial to set the exposure and focus manually with a little trial-and-error on a digital camera.

Eric did mention how motion picture (movie) footage is still shot manually, with the required focus preset for each scene.

These are some of the results (note that 28mm effectively becomes 42mm on the D50):


Afternoon sun over KPS, University of Malaya, 11 December.


Tien Ern and Phoebe, husband and wife, walk down the aisle at PJEFC, 12 December.


Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, former Chairman of the National Service Training Council, now Chairman of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, at the officiation ceremony for a safety and health campaign, organised by the Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) at KL Sentral, 14 December.

I remember first seeing him at my National Service camp in Pahang. Looking back through my diary entries, I found a paragraph describing a tall, bald man, clearly an official of some sort, who visited the camp. In retrospect, the description could not have matched any other person.


The Brickfields exit of KL Sentral.


Kishan, Timothy, Fitrah, Ruth and I went to see KLPac's performance of Handel's Messiah on 17 December.

It was one of the most authentic performances of the oratorio I have seen, from the scaled down Baroque orchestra, down to the stained glass gobos used. The only thing missing was a real harpsichord.

While Messiah is almost always performed to grand proportions, and understandably so, it was refreshing to see it as it might have been at its early performances back in the 1740s and 1750s.


The audience, per tradition, rose for the Hallelujah Chorus.


The five of us.


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I've always wanted to take a picture of George running in a field.

That day will come.