Happy Chinese New Year 2010...虎年行大运!!!

Happy Chinese New Year

to everyone!!!

Wishing everyone

新年快樂 恭喜发财 身体健康 万事如意

虎年行大运!!!

Happy Chinese New Year 牛年快乐

Today is Chinese New Year...

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2009... :D

恭喜发财 心想事成 身体健康 世界和平

The video below is a DIY Chinese New Year Music Video created by a bunch of creative young peoples. One of them is my friend. Enjoy the video...

p/s: This post is also my 200th posts. Thank you everyone to continue visiting this blog and I promised will shoot more nice pics to share here... :D

2009 First Full Moon

Today's moon is big, round and bright. It is also 2009 first full moon. Just now I went to my house's balcony with my Olympus E-500, Zuiko Digital 40-150mm F3.5-4.5 and a tripod to experience moon shooting. I tried various of settings with the camera and pic below is my best shot...

Shot taken at 150mm (300mm @ 35mm), F10, 1/250 sec. and ISO 200...

What do you think of this shot? In my opinion, this is not a good shot. With maximum focal length at 150mm (300mm), lots of the moon's details cannot be shot clearly...

This full moon also marked two weeks countdown to Chinese New Year!!! Gong Xi Fa Chai to everyone!!!   :D 

My Lomo...#15

This pic taken during the eve of Chinese New Year, where as usual my parent will welcome the deities of Heaven and Earth, especially God of Wealth...

Chinese New Year's Eve

A month ago, Chinese around the world celebrated Chinese New Year. This year is Rat Year, the first animal in Chinese Zodiac.

On the Chinese New Year's Eve as usual, like last year and years before, my family will gather together on the dining table to have our reunion dinner.


*Non-halal*


This year, we have ABALONE!!! :D

After reunion dinner, my father told me to take some pics of his newly bought decoration. Although it's not an expensive stuff, he likes it very much...



While 12am strikes closer, my mother become very busy preparing an altar for welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, especially God of Wealth. On the altar, we usually put some colourful delicacies and fruits as offerings, such as NianGao, mandarin orange, dried mandarin orange, pomelo, pineapple, sweets, nut paste etc etc. There's also big, medium and small, red and gold joss-sticks and candles used as offering.......


Good phrase bevelled on the gold ash bowl...


The ashes to put on joss-sticks...


Joss-sticks and candles...


Nut paste and others...


Dried mandarin orange...


Mixed delicacies...


Pineapple...


Longan...


Mixed sweets...


Mandarin orange...


The overall arrangement...


and my lovely Dendrobium (shot for fun, not for offering)... :)

When the clock strikes 12am, my parents will starts the praying and followed by my siblings and me...


Burning joss-sticks and candles...


Fireworks from neighbourhood...

And last but not least, some "fire-flies" released to chase away bad and evil stuffs....



Hohohoho....Belated Gong Xi Fa Cai from me...

First hour of Lunar Chinese New Year

Every year, when the clock strike 12.00am on the eve of 30th day of last month in chinese calender, it's marked the first day of Lunar Chinese New Year. As usual, almost every chinese home, who are Buddhist or Taoist in religion, will start the god praying ceremony (as in every first and 15th day of every month in chinese calender) and the famous God of Prosperity Invitation (Jip Choi San) ceremony. The said two ceremony can be done at the same time. My home is not excluded from this two ceremony. Below are some shot I taken...

Enjoy...

**Some underexposed photos are purposely done**



The preparation.


Up-close...


'Ong Lai' Candle Light...can last for 15 days...


Ceremony start...no praying shot as parent not allowed...


Some cheap firework display around the neighbourhood...(handheld...not bad eh???)


God of Sky...


Dragon joss-stick...


Fook...means happiness and prosperity


Treasure Offering for the Gods...


And finally......to scare/chase out 'Nian' monster and other dirty stuff....

Chinese New Year Decoration in Home

After having our Dinner of Togetherness (Tuan Yuan Fan) on the day before Chinese New Year, we still have 5 more hours for the God of Prosperity 'Invitation' (Jip Choi San) ceremony. It's really a long wait for me... So, I take my camera and go around my home for snap, snap, snap... This year my home was not heavily decorated as year before because my home had just went thru a heavy renovation...Everything looks just new and nice... So, my mother and sisters just bought some flowers and decoration thingys to do some mild decoration in my house. Below are some photos i shot that night...

Enjoy...



Dinner of Togetherness...Almost the same every year...


Butterfly on the flower...


Bird with sweet fruits...


Another butterfly...About 20 butterflies can be seen in my house...


Bird eating sweet cherry fruits...


Big KAT 'Mandarin Orange'.


God of Happiness @ Laughter God...in standing mode...


Golden God of Prosperity...


Another two birds...


Money Lion...


RUN!!!...Pin! Pin! Biang!!!....