I’ve dabbled here and there in photography and it’s always a good diversion every once in a while from juggling bits and bytes or ink on a page. A cliche as good as any: helps you see things in a whole different light. Here’s my photo site: hkp. Have a good day, people!

Ensuring that color remains consistent across display devices and printers is a definite must for anyone who takes photography and compositing work seriously. For the past five months I’ve been using a Spyder 3 Pro to calibrate four monitors connected to my Hack Pro system. So far I’ve been extremely pleased with its ease of use with both OS X and Windows 7. The software for both platforms is intuitive and simple to use.

My friend Husam got himself a Harley, I got myself a camera, a couple of strobes and a light diffuser that seems to have been a shower cap in a previous life. I’ve been fiddling around with a hybrid photography/graphic style that’s often referred to as hyper-realism. The style is identifiable by its clean, contrasty look, sharp details, vivid colors and usually large depth of field. Is it a good thing?

__ My favorite lens currently is a 50mm f/2.8 1:1 Macro. It’s perfect for life-size close-ups and portraits. Although it’s not as fast as I’d like it to be (i.e. f/1.4 or f/1.2), it’s sharp and has lovely bokeh (the appearance of out of focus areas) thanks to its circular aperture. Some of the above photos were shot using a DIY soft box that I hacked together last night (instructions at Strobist – highly recommended site).

If the page does not display correctly, click here. I stood on the edge of a road bustling with people and cars. “Awas!” read a sign in Malay. The roads in Kuala Lumpur were, as in most cities, littered with signs that cautioned drivers of impending doom should they heed no warning as they zipped past roadworks and construction sites. “Awas,” was for all intents and purposes, _attention, hazard, achtung–_call it what you will, in Malay.

I’ve had a frog lying on my desk for ages. I don’t mind it. It’s harmless and only moves when you move it (it’s plastic.) The toy frog is orange actually, but I thought it looked cooler in green. Original image: Now for the David Attenborough bit: For many years zoologists have debated the existence of a particular frog belonging to the genus Hyla. Recently, however, the keyboard-dwelling species of frog has made the transition from cryptozoology to zoology.

What better way to pass a lazy Friday afternoon than Photoshopping some old travel photos? The basis for the image above is a snap I took while crossing from Dubai to the Omani border a couple of years ago. The cars, falconer, camels, jets, coffee stain, grocery list and note scribble, folds and other effects are all Photoshop magic! The original base image is this: What in the world is Wunderistan?

The wind is warm, yet the overcast foretells of inevitable drizzle. Not rain, mind you. Just drizzle, the sort of rain that announces itself longer than the time it takes it to come down and be done with. Rejoice, car wash men, for sandy drops of water; mischievous as they are, will splatter on all, leaving no vehicle; however fancy and gemlike, unsoiled. And fall they do, for about half an hour.