Photography Forums - Overseas and Local (Malaysia)

As entry-level dSLRs have become more affordable, everyone seems to be getting on into the field of photography, sort of jumping into the bandwagon. For newbies (including me), other than attending photography workshops and joining outings, another invaluable learning resource is the Internet itself.

There are various online photography forums, that specifically cater for the respective camera brands (Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, etc), photography techniques (strobist, film, etc), locality (local or overseas), and even photo-editing.

When I first started photography with my Nikon D40, I joined a local forum: LensaMalaysia.com (currently defunct). Everything was rosy in the beginning. Had a wonderful time getting to know new friends with similar passion/hobby and had lots of fun during the frequent outing trips. The forum also organised many free talks by established/professional photographers, and there were many invaluable pointers/tips to be gained.

However, somewhere along the line, things began to fell apart. As a forum that had prided itself to encompass the online community, the moderators began to ignore the contribution of its members. Hero-worshipping towards certain individuals was tolerated, they could do no wrong in the eyes of the moderators. Active members soon realised such double standard treatment, and began to leave. In a few months after our last fiery posts, forum progressed to a slow death.

Things are quite similar to the second forum that I had joined, ShutterAsia.com. The forum moderators have recently decided to regulate the postings of model photography workshops as to safeguard members from scams and pointless workshops, and at the same time to uphold the standards of portraiture (rather than shooting anything sexy, bikini, nudity aka flesh/meat session). :D

With such regulation, there has to be clear guidelines on the rules of the forum. Failure to do so will only invite questioning by fellow members. What astounded me was when one moderator replied that fairness is subjective and as such they reserve the right to solely allow a particular group member to continue their workshop postings while at the same time deleting postings by others. Yes, you can do that, but not arbitrarily.

Till today (after a month and after we have given countless suggestions), there is still no clear guidelines announced. Not wanting to be associated with such mentality, I requested to be removed from being as a member of the Shutter Council.

I have better experience surfing and participating in overseas forum such as dpreview and NikonCafe. The participants there are much more civilised and tacit, even though tempers do flare on and off. As for local photography forums, I currently only lurk at PhotoMalaysia.

I truly believe that an only community can only work out successfully when there is synergy and mutual respect+appreciation between the forum moderators and their fellow members.

Student's chatters

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A-B-C-D-E-F-G

H1N1 selesama babi

2.

Happy Birthday to you

Your father kills you

Your mother cooks you

Your family eats you

The three major branches of Science

If it smells, it's Chemistry.
If it squirms, it's Biology.
If it doesn't work, it's Physics.

Of dessicant and silica gel

As most anhydrous salts are hygroscopic, they can be used to absorb moisture. Especially useful to prevent fungi growth on photographic equipments.

Here are some examples:

1. Calcium chloride
CaCl2 + 2 H2O → CaCl2·2H2O

2. Silica gel (sodium silicate)
It's high surface area enables it to absorb water in copious quantity.

Indicators are often added to indicate moisture content.

Recently I was involved in an argument whereby a so-called "synthesis chemist" argued with me that silica gel changes colour due to oxidation with water. What a great joke!

a. The change in colours is due to presence of indicators. One example is cobalt (II) chloride (CoCl2). In the presence of water, this particular salt changes colour from blue to pink.

b. Anyone with basic understanding of chemistry will know that colours are usually imparted by transition metals. In this particular, cobalt ion forms complexes with water molecules.

c. Solid sodium salts are boringly white in colour.

The best part was when he had the audacity to ask me to backup my claims with journal citations. I doubt he even knows how to search scientific literature efficiently.

The story behind.

Sheesh!

Cows with resealable stomach

Another post on cows, this time with some surgical operations done to open a window into their special stomachs.

As a ruminant, a cow's stomach is very different from most mammals. It consists of 4 chambers: the rumen, reticulum, omasum, and the obamasum (true stomach).

Although the surgical operation to have a resealable window in the cow's stomach seems cruel, this treatment is vital for us to understand better on the digestion of cellulose. The stomach content can be analysed from time to time to mark the progression of cellulose digestion.

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