Joining Hands with Perbadanan Putrajaya

This is our first move to collaborate with Perbadanan Putrajaya in order to make Sungai Alur Ilmu in UKM a better place. Many ideas were given such as ways to build a Wetland kind of thing in our Sungai Alur Ilmu. Perbadanan Putrajaya also agreed to supply us with the plants and the workmanship in building the Wetland.

That's me at Perbadanan Putrajaya.

At Wetlands Lake.

A dragonfly at the Wetlands Lake.

Central Wetland.

A group photo of us in Perbadanan Putrajaya.

A group photo of us in Wetlands.

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Perbadanan Putrajaya

My Second Video in UKM (Flash Mob @ Alamanda Putrajaya)

Saksikan Flash mob daripada Team Alur Ilmu UKM khas di Alamanda Putrajaya! 

Sepanjang pertunjukkan Flash Mob ini kami berjaya menarik ramai pengunjung untuk mendapatkan sokongan daripada pelbagai pihak dalam membawa misi kami memperjuangkansungai yang terdapat di dalam UKM.

Secara umumnya team kami memperjuangkan kesedaran kepada warga UKM secara khusunya dan warga Malaysia secara amnya dalam pentingnya menjaga sungai kita yang semakin tenat akibat pembangunan dan sikap tidak ambil kisah oleh manusia sekeliling. Pendekatan Flash Mob ini digunakan kerana sasaran kami adalah golongan belia yang lebih cenderung dalam bentuk hiburan yang sihat disamping membawa mesej kesedaran pentingnya memperjuangkan kebersihan sungai dan alam sekitar.

Kami berharap dengan adanya aktiviti Flash mob ini akan mendapat penyertaan dari pelbagai pihak khususnya warga UKM untuk kita sama-sama berkempen secara lebih menarik dalam mendekati golongan belia. Oleh demikian sesiapa yang berminat bolehlah menyertai kami kerana kami bakal mengadakan Flash Mob besar-besaran di Alamanda sekali lagi dan di lain tempat dalam mendapatkan lagi tanda sokongan pelbagai pihak.

Alur Ilmu The Heart of UKM 

Exploring UKM (Part 2)

Well, as promised earlier in my blog post titled "Exploring UKM", these are more shots of mine around UKM. 

Cute little insect on a leaf.

Rays of sunlight diffusing through the leaves of trees of FSSK.

Water Droplets on a leaf.

Water Droplets on a few leaves.

What is a "Kolam" ?

Overview

Kolam is a drawing generally drawn at the entrance of a house or any other building. This is a very old practice in South India. Dried rice flour or other types of wkite powders are used for drawing kolams. Although there are numerous traditional kolams patterns and lot more can be created depending on the creativity of the person who draws it, it is not drawn like a picture. Patterns are created based on certain systems. Drawing Kolam is practiced by women. Generally women get up early in the morning and clean the area just outside the entranes of their houses, sprinkle the area with water and draw the kolam by dropping the loose dried flour in a controlled way through their forefinger and the thumb.

Mostly the kolam patterns are created based on dots arranged in different types of grid patterns. However, many non-dot based kolam patterns also are available.

Purpose of Kolam Drawing

Purpose of kolams are not merely decorative. Kolam drawing has several social, spiritual andsymbolic meanings attached to it. Those who practice this believe that drawing kolam purify the entrance space and this in turn will invite the goddess of wealth Laxmi to enter the house. This they believe would give the inmates all wealth and prosperity.

Source : http://rmnathan.hubpages.com/hub/Kolam_-

_The_Traditional_Floor_Drawing_of_South_India

Deepavali Lunch in UKM

On the 28th of November 2013, UKM hosted a Deepavali lunch for the indian students of UKM. This event was launched by the Vice Chancellor of UKM, YBhg. Prof. Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr. Sharifah Hapsah binti Syed Hasan Shahabudin. There were not only Indians who joined this event, but there were also people from many races who joined this event. This event brought all the races together in just a short period of time. Oh and yeah, there were a variety of Indian food served here! Yum Yum! 

A variety of food that was served here.

"Kolam" at the Chancellory Building. 

Rule of Thirds

Perhaps the most well known principle of photographic composition is the ‘Rule of Thirds‘.

The “Rule of Thirds” one of the first things that budding digital photographers learn about in classes on photography and rightly so as it is the basis for well balanced and interesting shots.

I will say right up front however that rules are meant to be broken and ignoring this one doesn’t mean your images are necessarily unbalanced or uninteresting. However a wise person once told me that if you intend to break a rule you should always learn it first to make sure your breaking of it is all the more effective!

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts. As follows.

As you’re taking an image you would have done this in your mind through your viewfinder or in the LCD display that you use to frame your shot.

With this grid in mind the ‘rule of thirds’ now identifies four important parts of the image that you should consider placing points of interest in as you frame your image.

Not only this – but it also gives you four ‘lines’ that are also useful positions for elements in your photo.

The theory is that if you place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines that your photo becomes more balanced and will enable a viewer of the image to interact with it more naturally. Studies have shown that when viewing images that people’s eyes usually go to one of the intersection points most naturally rather than the center of the shot – using the rule of thirds works with this natural way of viewing an image rather than working against it.

In addition to the above picture of the bee where the bee’s eye becomes the point of focus here are some of examples:

In this image I’ve purposely placed the head of my subject on one of the intersecting points – especially his eyes which are a natural point of focus for a portrait. His tie and flower also take up a secondary point of interest.

In this shot I’ve placed the subject along a whole line which means she is considerably off center and therefore creating an additional point of interest. Placing her right in the center of the frame could have resulted in an ‘awkward’ shot.

In a similar way a good technique for landscape shots is to position horizons along one of the horizontal lines also as I’ve done with the following shot (I’ll let you imagine the lines).

Using the Rule of Thirds comes naturally to some photographers but for many of us takes a little time and practice for it to become second nature.

In learning how to use the rule of thirds (and then to break it) the most important questions to be asking of yourself are:

• What are the points of interest in this shot?
• Where am I intentionally placing them?

Once again – remember that breaking the rule can result in some striking shots – so once you’ve learnt it experiment with purposely breaking it to see what you discover.

Lastly – keep the rule of thirds in mind as you edit your photos later on. Post production editing tools today have good tools for cropping and reframing images so that they fit within the rules. Experiment with some of your old shots to see what impact it might have on your photos.

Source: http://digital-photography-school.com/rule-of-thirds

Trip to Broga Hill, Semenyih

Broga is a small town that sits on the border of Selangor and Negri Sembilan in Malaysia. It is situated 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Kuala Lumpur and approximately 33 kilometres (21 mi) from Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan. 

Last Sunday, Perwakilan Agama Hindu UKM (PAHUKM) organized a trip to Broga Hill, Semenyih. We were told to leave for Broga Hill by 4am in the morning! Like, Duh! It's 4am and it's supposed to be my sleeping time. But it definitely was worth sacrificing my sleep for Broga. The view was fantastic and marvelous! We reached at the foot of Broga at about 5am and hence we started hiking as we planned to be at the peak before sunrise. Unfortunately we couldn't really see the sunrise as the weather was cloudy and gloomy that morning. Although we didn't get to see the sunrise, I was very happy and satisfied. I got nice and awesome shots with my camera and and I got to feel the early morning breeze on my face. I felt rejuvenated! I was a happy guy! 

The view from the peak early in the morning!

A picture of my friends standing on a rock!

The gloomy weather indicating it's going to rain.

The view of the peak of Broga Hill.

A photo of me enjoying the scenery of Broga Hill.

Something interesting I found on my way back to the foot of Broga Hill.

A group photo of all of us who joined the hike!