Of course, for me it's another excuse to take more pictures.
The evening sky that day was not too bright with lots of thick clouds and the sun peering in through random patches of sky. Occasionally some sprinkles of rain came down, no more than mere 5 to 10 minutes of light sprays, and the weather was nice again. Perfect for an evening picnic.
The tide was ebbing that day so there were no waves or deep water for almost half a mile out. Close to sunset we walked out to the water to get our feet wet and take some pics. I was more interested in the silhouette figure I saw standing in the shallow water just looking at people, as if he was guarding something precious in between his feet.
Later when it got a bit darker I set my camera for CLS shots. I took a couple shots of my friends just talking and drinking before Zul asked me to take a picture of him being the 'model' for Seasons' canned soy drink.
Hisham was our guest of the day. He flew back to Malaysia from the States for three weeks just to visit family and friends. It's been a while since we hung out with him so any chance we got to chill out together with him was indeed treasured.
And of course, Hisham was ecstatic to get to see us too!
We decided to do some jumping shots before it got too dark. Being an amateur, it wasn't easy for me to set up the shot with off-camera flash synchronized with ten people jumping at the same time. This shot was taken with the flash not firing, resulting in a very dark underexposed photo. Using Adobe Lightroom, I turned it into a black-and-white photo with grains not removed to get that 'vintage' feel. There are advantages to not delete failed shots. There are certainly ways to salvage them and turn them into something wonderful.
Finally after quite a few tries, the flash fired in-synch, and I was able to capture this photo of everyone having a wonderful time, albeit some shadows falling on some of their faces.
We finally separated and went our own ways after having some ghost stories and lame jokes told around an imaginary (read: non-existant) campfire.
