Loctor Mayat’s Autopsy

Oo… today leh.. Cikgu going to talk about something else laa..

You see, these photography stuff… while it may be fun… it is not actually cheap. When one is going into this hobby initially, he or she must be prepared to spend a substantial amount of money in order to get a basic start up kit for him or her to start shooting photos.

Well.. today Cikgu Mayat is going to give a few pointers, based on personal experiences, as well as from what I’ve observed over the years on how people finance their equipment lah….

(1) Never use ‘Evil Money’ to buy

Okay, what did I mean by Evil Money leh? Maybe this photo will go straight to the point:

Woahahha~!

I know that almost of all you, are buying your camera stuff using credit cards. Well… to me, there is nothing wrong with buying using credit cards. In fact, sometimes when the items are thousands and thousands of Ringgit, it is EXTREMELY dangerous to carry that amount of cash to walk into a store.

So, credit card is useful only if you look at it from this point of view.

Bear in mind, most shops will charge an additional of 2-3% on the total price if you use credit card to pay. There is nothing much you can do about it but if you are good friends with the boss, you might get charged lesser. WOahahhaha

Now…. IF you use the credit card to pay for your precious DSLR and it’s accessories…. BUT you only pay the minimum amount every month the credit card statement comes… then you’re nothing but a fool.

This kind of purchase, is what I call it buying with ‘Evil Money‘. Spending your future income is an idiotic way of obtaining your material desires. It is sad to say that quite a lot of people go into this kind of credit card debt so easily, after a few years, they are easily in RM20-30k of debts. What for laaa…?

Never spend your future income!!

(2) You DON’T NEED to have everything

When you are picking up photography, you need to differentiate between what you NEED and what you WANT. A lot of people cannot tell which are the things they need and things they want.

For Cikgu, the things you definitely NEED are:

- A camera (DUH~!)

- A good wide angle lens (e.g. Kit Lens)

- An adequate support system a.k.a Tripod

- A drybox , and

- A flash unit (if you can afford it)

To me, that is all that you need for producing excellent images for many many years. Of course, now with digital photography you will need to do some simple (or extremely heavy) post processing so you’ll need a computer powerful enough to run PhotoShop or whatever software you want to.

I really do not understand those guys who buy multiple lenses which more or less do the same thing. I can understand the concept behind having multiple flashes if the photographer is into multiple flash lighting techniques though.

The worst are those who want to buy everything but once they get their hands on it, they never use it.

There are photographers, and there are people who like to talk about photography. Which group do you belong to?

Every time someone asks me whether they should get this lens or that flash or that body bla bla bla…. I will always ask the same question.. “Do you need it?”

For some, they can answer themselves and admit that they just want to buy it for shiok shiok saje..

well.. if you have money and don’t know what to do with it….. by all means go ahead. But if you’re just an average salary earner with bills to pay and debts to clear, then…..

WOAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

(3) Buy ORI (if you can)

Okay.. this one.. not all may agree with me but who cares? LOL

If you have a Nikon DSLR… please la… go buy Nikon lenses and stick with it

If you have a Canon… then go get a Canon lens…

I have nothing against 3rd party lenses like Tamron, Sigma, Tokina, Etc…. I do admit some of them produce very good results. My point here is that, since you are spending your hard earned money on something that costs several thousands… why not just go ahead and get the best there is? The primary reason people go for 3rd party is because they’re cheap… that’s all. Not the F/2.8 capability or what Vibration Reduction or whatever mumbo jumbo… no… that is just to cheat yourself and make you happy for a few weeks after your purchase.

Personally, I have bought and used several 3rd party lenses. Today, I have already sold off each and every one of them. None of them can give me consistent results. Some of them couldn’t even focus properly when I needed it to. The worst is, after a couple of years, the coating of the 3rd party lens slowly disappear!!

Now, with my original Nikon lenses, I never faced such issues.

(4) You don’t “invest” in photography unless you make money out of it

Some people very smart. To justify their expensive photography purchase to their wives/mother… they said they are “investing” into the equipment.

These people ah… don’t know whether they understand the term “invest” or not….

Investing by definition means putting in your money with the intention of making a return out from it.

So… if you are “investing” your money in your expensive photography gear, you must have some plan of getting back some Return on Investment (ROI). How to do that leh? Easy nia…. 99.999% newbies will say they will shoot wedding photos for people.

Some will have a plan of setting up a studio…. while some target commercial companies to sell their images.

Those are very good.. as long as you stick to your plan… and make a return as soon as possible.

NOW…

A LOT.. and i say … A LOT of people who go and shoot weddings… are actually quite…

How come?

Say for example a certain Mr Lambardo who just spent roughly RM4,000 on a medium range DSLR with a wide angle zoom kit lens plus a flash. He said he will go shoot wedding to make money…

One fine day, thanks to some recommendations from some aunties or what nots… Mr Lambardo was asked to shoot the wedding ceremony of some cousin aunty sister’s friend’s uncle’s mechanic son’s tuition teacher. However, because he’s new and inexperienced, he only charges RM200 for his services.

SO… if you do some simple calculation..

If Mr Lambardo charges RM200 *ONLY*  each and every time his ’services’ are needed, he will only Break Even after…

4,000  / 200 = 20 times

That… does not even include his petrol, toll, lodging, food incurred during the photo shoot. In addition, he might even need to apply annual leave from work or sacrifice his weekends just to achieve that.

Now.. the biggest mistake a newbie would do is… after getting .. say… 2 jobs worth Rm200… they feel like they’re damn pro already. So… the “pro” label must be accompanied by better equipment. So off goes the RM400 into upgrading to a better lens or flash or camera body. This goes on and on and after a few years, they would’ve already spent tens of thousands on equipments alone.. but still charging less than RM1k for their services.

Where’s the investment????

It is a different story.. if you have the mindset of buying the equipment.. as a hobby. This is actually what I’m doing now… I don’t care about how much I can earn from the hobby… I only care about getting nice images for myself and my family which I can treasure for many years to come. If someone needs my services, even if I shoot for free also i won’t feel a thing because in my head , making money out from the hobby never crossed my mind.

The only caveat is… I need to know you pretty well to be able to shoot for FREE for you. LOL… else… you go find those RM200 photographers la.. they are “Investors”

(5) Save up

This has got to be the most basic advice any parent can give.

If you want something so badly… even though it’s rather a useless thing…

as long as you like it.. and you think you will enjoy it a lot… who cares what other people say?? Just buy it!

These photography stuff are not cheap… in fact, some of them are so expensive costing tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousand. If you want them so badly.. .then save up for it!

I find it very appalling that an average salaried worker cannot even put aside one or two hundred a month aside for savings. What comes in.. goes out immediately. How stupid is that.

As discussed about in (1), never use credit card to buy then slowly pay off… even though it has the 0% installment facility. It sucks to pay off something for several months. I’ve been there, I know the feeling.

If the camera you want to buy costs Rm3,000… then put aside RM200 every month.. by 1.5 years… you already have the money to buy it already. Hey, you do get a bonus at the end of the year… no? You might get the buy the equipment sooner than you think

The key word is…. DISCIPLINE

Some tried but only manage to save the money for 2 months.

Some talk very pandai but couldn’t even save for the 1 month.

Talk a lot but no action… you only have yourself to blame for getting into deeper and deeper debt.

Okay laa… Enough talk already. I manage to type so long because I am on annual leave enjoying my time off and UltraBen is with the babysitter now. Woahahha… time for Cikgu to go sleep liao…

See ya!

MURID MURID~!!

CIKGU DAH BALIK~~~~~~

WOAHAHAHHAHA…….

So how are you all? Yes yes… I know I’ve been busy and I’ve been neglecting the blog and my kelas kameras because of UltraBen. Really paiseh… I think most of the murid-murid Kelas Kamera pun dah cabutzz… LOL

Anyways, today I am going to go back to basic a bit for those who are new to this photography thing. Today I’m going to talk about the different type of lenses that is available, and which one you should use.

THE “LOUSY” KIT LENS

Okay, if you just bought your first DSLR, it will surely come with a packaged lens which everybody called it as the ‘Kit Lens’. The kit lens is an all-purpose lens that usually comes in the focal length range of 18mm to 55mm or sometimes 70mm. The higher end models will come with a longer zoom range but that doesn’t really matter.

Some of these kit lenses has extra features like VR (Vibration Reduction) and some mumbo-jumbo marketing thingamagic which I don’t really bother much.

The range provided by this lens allows you to capture a lot of images in different scenarios. In fact, if I were to go on a holiday trip, this is the only lens I’ll bring.

Macro? NO PROBLEM~~~~ take this photo for example, it was taken using my old old old D50 + kit lens:

So, there is actually nothing wrong with your kit lens. The only problem is you yourself for no having no skills to fully utilize it. WOahhaha…

Telephoto Lenses

Well… usually, the 2nd lens that a hobby photographer would buy will be a telephoto zoom lens.

The telephoto zoom lens is pretty much the same as the wide angle kit lens, with the difference is that the telephoto zoom lens allow you to shoot something very far away (e.g. Your opposite neighbour changing his sarong).

Can you use it to shoot portrait? SURE!!!

Can you use it to shoot macro? SURE!!!

Can you use it to shoot fisheye effect photo? SIAO AH!!!

DAN SEBAGAINYA…

Okay.. there are many other lenses… from super zoom like 18-200mm… to super telephoto like 600mm F/4.. and of course.. my favourite the prime lenses like my precious 20mm F/2.8D

One day when I senang, I will talk more about prime lenses.

The Take Away Message…

You see, many people thought that certain photos can only be taken using certain lenses. So, without proper knowledge and some lousy will power, they go and buy and spend their hard earned money to go and get more and more lenses hoping to achieve something. Well that’s wrong. We are Kiammsiap™ people…. we don’t simply spend money in today’s economy.

After buying the camera, just use the kit lens and practice. Use it to your advantage. Find out its strength and weakness. Without any skills you go and spend tens of thousands of ringgit on lenses also no point one.

Itu saja la…. till next time Cikgu is free again… I talk about prime lenses

Well.. after days of delaying… I’ve finally consolidated part #1 of my photography equipments for sale..

Check out the thread in PhotoMalaysia here:

http://www.photomalaysia.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117742

In summary, I’m letting go of my D300 with grip and also my support system of Manfrotto & Markins.

GOOD LUCK!

Hooo boy.. well lookie at my last post… November 30th~!

I guess I must have been really busy with the ongoing in my life right now. So what is happening actually?

Currently I’m in my last month at my current department at work and slowly transitioning my responsibilities to my very capable juniors. There are still some teething issues to solve but I’m pretty sure everything will be fine by the time I leave this group to join another department in Penang. Yeah, next year onwards I’ll be working in the Paper Mill’s Bayan Lepas plant, doing something totally different from what I’ve been doing for the past 8 years or so. It will be challenging but it will be exciting as well (I hope!). Ha ha ha! I still have 6 years++ worth of junk to pack and I’m taking it slowly. Currently I’m enjoying whatever time I have left here.

As for the family side, Mrs Mayat has now reached the 37th week of her pregnancy and Little Loctor will be coming into Planet Ultra anytime now. Thank goodness currently she is having her school holidays so she can prepare and have all the rest she can. Of course I am excited and yeah I am financially ready as well. I don’t need those “This is just the beginning” type of comments because I’m not that poor. LOL~! I’m just Kiamsiap™.

Ha ha ha.. speaking of being Kiamsiap™, thanks to the paper mill colleague’s suggestion, she asked me to go to those diapers website and check out whether they give out free samples or not. With that, I don’t have to spend to buy the diapers needed on Little Loctor’s first few days….

Well… a click here and some typing there…. within a week this came in my postbox:

WOahahhaha…. 2 pieces of Mamy Poko diapers for newborn… well, of course 2 only not enough la… so we’ve got to get more. Thanks to the paper mill factory again, I got some free shopping vouchers given by the management for excellent work done on doing nothing throughout the year. So, with those vouchers, I went out and got this too:

Woahahhaha…. so Kiamsiap™.

Anyhow, not long ago me and Mrs Mayat were strolling inside a nearby mall where we discovered a new cafe which serves cheap and simple meals. You know, like one of those several Old Town Kopitiam type of cafe?

Well.. since it’s new and we like surprises when it comes to food, we thought of giving it a go to see how it goes. Who knows we might stumble into a new food gem.

Oh yeah.. what a big surprise it was when the waitress passed us the food menu:

I almost laughed my ass off on the spot when I saw ‘Sweet and Smelly Pork Rice’. What the heck?

When I looked at the set meal menu, I was even more dumbfounded and almost can’t hold back my laughter..

WHAT IN THE WORLD???

Okay.. for goodness sake, boys and girls from young to old. No matter whatever it is, ENGLISH IS DAMN IMPORTANT laa…. hahahhaha.

How can you ask people to eat ‘Sweet & Smelly Pork Rice’ ????

So, anyhow, being the hero that I am, I bravely ordered the ‘Sweet and Smelly Chicken Rice’. After a few minutes of waiting, the food arrived and I finally understand the problem…

Woa Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha~!!

What ‘Sweet & Smelly’ laa???? It’s Kam Heong style cooking. Sweet and FRAGRANT laa for goodness sake.

Anyhow, this meal costs me RM3.80 which is rather okay for Penang standard. However, the food is nothing to shout about and maybe you’re already full when you first saw the menu. LOL~!!

So, anyhow, this is what I wanna say for now.

Thanks in advance for your well wishes with regards to Little Loctor. I shall post in detail about his delivery and of course the very first photo of him. Oooo… so excited!