I'm trying to take photos of black cats for my header image. We used to have lots of black cats loitering at home but now they're gone and gave way to new generation of 'unblack' breed. This new gen includes our own 'grey & white' who is currently dominating the header of this blog. I did came across one rogue blacky feline trespassing our compound recently. Besides being declared a bitter nemesis to our 'grey & white', I found it hard to get a snap of him.

Ber suggested me to look for black cats at the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque in the capital and also the Tamu Selera (an open air food-court) nearby. So before going to Tasek Lama yesterday, I dropped by SOAS Mosque but could not find a single whisker. Hmm that would be a great header image, black cats roaming the marble garden of Brunei's most prominent landmark!

So I just spent my time taking photos of SOAS Mosque which marks the centre of Bandar Seri Begawan, built in the 50s, tall, majestic and a symbol of the Islamic faith in Brunei.

a haven for salvation, also for the birds..

...the glorious golden dome

..ablution..getting into a state of cleanliness and purity..

Last but not least, an HDR image of SOAS Mosque

p/s. I haven't checked Tamu Selera for the black cats though..

At last, a chance to shoot a real waterfall. Tasek Lama Recreational Park is a popular national park in the midst of Bandar Seri Begawan, a perfect haven for jungle trekking enthusiasts, outdoor fitness or simply for a weekend stroll. On a weekend like this, parking seems to be a problem and it took me almost 30 minutes to get a decent spot.

Check out this white car, two cars could have parked there if you notice the lines. The YPI Management would love to get their hands on this piece of evidence. (Editor's note 15/01/2007: In fact they already did!)

..and now let's take a walk, shall we?

                          

..nice! A reflexology pad..

..a bamboo waterfall (dunno what its called actually). The water is cool and fresh, this is shower for people of olden days.

..now this is the must-stop after a few rounds of hard, sweaty jungle trekking. It relaxs your tense muscles and mind. Too bad you're not allowed to take a dip!

...ohh before you leave, please keep our country clean!

This blog has hit the 1000 mark and increasing since I put up the counter few months back. With the self-referring/bookmarkers ranks the top, I would like to share my Top 3 referrers as of 12th January 2007.

1) Emmagoodegg
2) Kantalensa
3) Wonderful Brunei

Top 5 visitor countries as of the same date:

1) Brunei Darussalam
2) United Kingdom
3) Oman
4) Australia
5) Malaysia
while I also have visitors from Canada, Finland, Hungary, Germany and France.

Thank you for your support gang!

The weather today was not really good for a photo shoot, let alone to shoot for an HDR image, so much for the HDR syndrome which is spreading like wild fire.

I've been longing to shoot waterfalls as I've been missing the Sharp Shooter's session at Tasek Lama. So during our recent sunset HDR outing at The Empire, this was as close as I can get to a waterwork.

While waiting for my photos to be printed, I decided to take a little walk at Serusop shopping area or unofficially known as Brunei's Little India. This area is a major attraction for budget shopping and boasts an increasing number of shops, restaurants and sidewalk vendors.

Varieties of freshly fried fritters known as cucur, banana, yam, sweet tapioca cuts coated with flour and then deep fried. Also available curry puffs, spring rolls and other light snacks... you can't resist!

The camera shy street fruit mongers moved away when they saw me approaching with my camera. So I had my sweet time taking photos of their merchandise as much as I could.

Check out some of the exotic fruits of Brunei. The Membangan (Mangifera panjang), a seasonal fruit from the mango family. The tough outer skin can be removed by making longitudinal cuts, revealing a yellow or orange delightful mango fragrance. Pleasantly sweet and juicy, the flesh is smooth but fibrous.

The Kembayau (Canarium odontophyllum), is another unique fruit of Brunei. Quality breeds have oily yellowish appearance while the outer black-purple skin is removed. The edible portion is the mesocarp which is softened by soaking the whole fruit 5-10 minutes in hot water. Eaten with sugar, it has a fine flavour, crunchy with a rich creamy taste.

Another native fruit of South East Asia and Brunei, the Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum), has red (sometimes yellow) hairy skin, hence the name rambutan, derived from the Malay word rambut which means hairs. The white fruit flesh is tranlucent, with a sweet, mildly acidic flavour.

Not sure if you like bright colours, but I do! (except in my dress code.. that's a fashion disaster ).

Noticed my links drastically increased? Yea I've linked all (I hope I didn't missed any) those who were featured in Emma's Brunei Online. Long live Brunei blogging industry!

Whoppie! Ok first thing's first, I mentioned about the photo session we had last Saturday, now the compilation of Emma's Brunei Online 2006 is now up and running. Hats off to EmmaGoodEgg and Bobby plus the crew: Mellie, Stella, Fidbit and guest photographers Ahim and Bald. Coming up will be what's behind the scene. Well done team!

Today's photo outing will feature Sunset at The Empire Hotel but this is not just an ordinary photo shoot. Instead it was an HDR outing, we took photos on RAW format and convert it to an HDR image. What's HDR? I'll get back to that later. For now here are some images of Empire Hotel.

..the jacuzzi, swimming pool & Pantai Restaurant..and the little waterfall.

Ok now this is what I was talking about just now. HDR imaging stands for High Dynamic Range and it is a combination of photography and computer graphics. I don't know how to explain it better, click here for more info. Thanks to Bruneian, AnakBrunei and Zadm for the valuable tips on HDR in their websites. These are my first HDR attempts, I still have 3 more to do.