From 2001 : "The Oldman Selling Doves at Pasir Puteh Market"

These images were made at one of the busiest Saturday market in Pasir Puteh, Kelantan in December 2001. It was a chance encounter while out making pictures at the market and meeting up with some old friends. My mother had spoken about this gentleman and his birds on numerous occasions, she's even bought a couple of singing ketitirs from him in the past.

This occasion was a significant one to me purely for the fact that it's about an oldman adamant about pursuing a dying tradition that I have always been fascinated with but have never entertained. There are two types of birdlovers, one falls under the conservationist category and the other those who likes to care for the birds and train them. Most of the second category birders are found in the East, much less in the West who are more keen with keeping the birds for companionship. Those for the East acquire, care, and train their charge from wee fledglings. While those from the West acquire their companion from pet stores or bird fairs of Europe.

The fact that I myself almost have not met this old man had I not decided to hang around the market that Saturday was also significant to me. What chance might there be for my son to discover this once favorite past time?

The oldman breeds and trains about 5000 ketitirs (spotted and zebra doves) singing birds at his home, they cost between a few dollars to a few thousands each depending on bloodlines. Those from famous prize winning parentage can fetch upwards of ten thousand each ... prized possession to those who seriously indulge in this past time and actively compete.

The oldman has been at it since as long as he can remember ... now with grown up children he finds all the more reason to continue with this passion. His market days are normally filled up by chance meeting like this or running up and down the state entertaining his clients and friends and showing off his latest prized birds.

We parted company after a couple of hours and a few rolls of Neopan ... he did try to convince me of the joy of keeping birds at the same time trying to sell me a pair of singing ketitirs and a MYR$500 beautifully handmade birdcage that comes with it. Had it not been for the trip back to the Netherlands, I would have accepted his invitation to visit his home to meet his other prized songsters. Having heard the songs from my mom's $2.50/pair ketitirs on the porch ... I can't truly imagine how his $15,000 birds must've sound like ... pretty close to heavenly no doubt ... why else would anybody do this for a lifetime.

Sirdal drive made back in early summer of 2017

Sirdal area is the closest scenic mountain area to where we live. It takes about 2 hrs drive from the city to the cabin area around Sinnes. For many years this has been a very popular mountain retreat area for locals and vacationers alike.

There are several ski lifts in the area and are very popular in the winter time, skiing is practically just outside your cabin door ... if you can burrow yourself out of the snow.

There are also numerous trail systems connecting various self catering DNT cabins in wee neck of the mountains and woods through varying landscape and difficulty.

From Sirdal, once can access Setesdal-Hovden (trekking in the summer. cross country skiing in winter), Lysebotn-Kjerag and Tonstad. Hunting, fishing in the various moorland, lakes and valleys are main attractions to licensed hunters and fishermen alike.

The drive to Sirdal : Motland to just before Tjorholm.

The return drive from Sirdal 1 : Tjorholm to just past Blafjell.

The return drive from Sirdal 2 : Blafjell to just after Motland.

The return from Sirdal 3 : Motland to just before Oltedal.

Since winter is crowded and fully packed, our choice has always been to go to Sirdal in the Spring, Summer and Fall. Cross country skiing is still possible in Spring over the mountainous regions, trekking in the summer and by Fall berry picking, Milkyway and Aurora chasing activities will have been possible. Small game hunters typically come around in late September and October when the season starts.

Testing a cheap 2-axis Gimbal from Gearbest

The 2-axis gimbal was originally purchased for use with my X380, 480 and M690 drones. I had a total of 5 of these cheap gimbals, they performed reasonably well for the price. I managed to somehow fried the board of two of the gimbals.

Since I havent flown the X380 since last autumn, I decided to re use the gimbal in another way. Why not attached it to a selfie stick and use it in that way. Though it's only 2-axis, it'll at least see some kind of utilisation instead of being relegated to the kit shelf for another year.

The 2-axis gimbal board assembled on a couple of carbon pieces attached to a selfie stick ... VOILA!

It performed a-okay for a cheap 2-axis gimbal, coupled with the 1.5m selfie stick it could go places once I get the hang of it. Undoubtedly it wont match to the DJI Ronin S, buts it fine for the intended use. The carbon selfie stick was around NOK250 (Banggood), the gimbal was around NOK160 (Gearbest). Here the camera used was the Thieye capable of 1080p120 videos.

The trial footages:

Long selfie stick, a bit flimsy to maneuver dt length of the stick:

A tad more stable handling user a shorter selfie stick (same stick just not fully extended):

Buy Buy Buy

So they had a pre Chrismas sale the other day on several items that had been on the back of my mind for a while now. With prices slashed from 20 to 30% before the year end, I decided to grab a few of them. Some I may not need immediately but they are definitely worth picking up due the reduction in cost.

The items that made the bag so to say were :

1) Samyang AF85/1.4
I actually wanted the Sigma which is double the price, but the new Samyang AF looks mighty sweet with an additional 20% price reduction. This lens has already proven it's mettle in this year's only Milkyway outing 2018 and the Comet 46P/Wirtanen chase. And it's very light ... did I mention f/1.4?

2) Panasonic LX100
Every year I seemed to pick up another tech loaded PnS that I can carry around on hikes or even play backup role to my full DSLR kit. This 4K 25fps capable camera was also on a discount. It has a maximum 60sec min shutter speed and a f/1.7 aperture, as well as internal timelapse capable PnS. Would be interesting to see it perform on the Star Adventurer star tracker at 60secs looking into the Milkyway when the season comes around again. And the 4K video obviously.

3) DJI Ronin S.
This was a purchase for the future ... it was on a 30% discount 6 months after it's introduction middle of this year. I've been making footage with the Canon 6D, Sony A7S on a fixed tripod thus far and has been meaning to make a more dynamic footage for a while now. With this gimbal it would be a definite possibility. The Ronin-S coupled with the recently available Blackmagic Pocket Cine Camera 4K would be epic, I will leave the Cine camera for the future for the timebeing. A Sony A7R is also within the attractive price band now that Sony A7R Mk 3 is all the rage at 3xthe current price of the A7R, meanwhile the BMPCC is only 1.5xA7R!!!

I figure if I quit FB next year (a distant objective) I'll have more time to pursue the items that were on my list of pursuits but have been left on the back burner for quite sometime now. These two pursuits : chase the night sky to the max and making more dynamic footages of the outdoors (night and/or day). Hopefully these will be getting the due attention they deserve come 2019 onwards. OFF with Zuckerberg!

Winter Morning

New builds for Winter 2018/2019

Nwe builds for winter 2018

Diatone 630 : Betaflight F4 FC, Sprog 2206
Cross 330 : Betaflight F4 FC, Emax 2205
Uruav 330 : Betaflight F4 FC, Sprog 2207
Shark 330 :
Alfa 7in :


All are 300+ configurations.

Chasing December night sky

The West Coast is plagued my milder climate with the Gulf Stream by it's shores. Moderate winters with very rare occurences of extreme temperatures and prolonged snow covered days. With that however you put up with cloudy days and sometimes prolonged wet days.

Decembers are sometimes delightful on the coast. Cool clear nights have plenty to offer for the night stalker. You've got aurora to chase (during an event), familiar winter constellations, fanciful atmospheric conditions with the fog and cold fronts, meteor showers and this year we've got Comet 46P/Wirtanen (5 year orbit).

Black Friday

Shopping Black Friday online is the way to go I think. Less crowds and you dont have to deal with other shoppers until you have to pick up the items from the post office. Rest assured you are not the only person thinking that online shopping is the way to go for Black Friday shopping.

It's also kinda nice that the online shops start targetting shoppers a week before that, and sometimes even a week after. I normally dont shop too much on Black Friday but this year I made it an exception, I needed to pick up a few essential items for 2019 Milkyway/Aurora shooting season.

I went surfing to Fjellesport.no, Adnature.no, Angler.no and the staples at XXL.no I picked up a 60L Osprey backback, down sleeping bag, sleeping bag liners, hiking poles, down jackets, hiking boots as well as several middle layer fleece. I figure by mid Aug 2019 I should be able to lug all these gear up to 900m around Blafjelle or Fidjelland for a full night of Milkyway/Aurora/Nightsky imaging ... single shots with one tripod, one head maybe 2xcamera set-up.

This has been a longtime in the planning, just haven't been executed due to lack of will and interest from others. I'm making it a hard target for 2019. If the weather cooperates God willing.

Target locations:

1. Blafjellet ... park, trek 2hrs from the trailhead, camp with a view into the Monafossen valley.
2. Fidjeland ... Cabin 48, trek and camp at the 1100m top.
3. Monafossen ... park, trek and camp looking into the Monafossen valley.
4. Fosseknuten ... park, trek and camp with a view north across the water.

There are plenty of other locations too around Lysesheiea  ... the full moon and clouds has always been the blocker. I still need to figure out the best way to lug the Star Adventurer and the carbon tripod for those locations requiring some trekking.

The last Milkyway for the season

I waited from August till now for this season's last shot at the Milkyway. It wouldnt be an exaggeration to say that this was the worst one yet. If it didnt rain, the sky was just full of clouds. There would be a couple of nice days during the week however by nightfall it would again turn cloudy.

Finally on the weekend of the 17th Nov, the sky looks promising. Clear sky but prettty cold by then at 5-5degs C throught the night on average reaching 1 deg C aorund 2am. Not wanting to loose the season I took a cabin for 2 nights and left for Sirdal on Saturday returning on Monday.

These shots were taken during the stay at the cabin, most were taken on the first night. By the 2nd night the temperature went down to minus 2 deg C. I concluded that I had gotten the shots I needed and didnt venture out on the 2nd night.

Some of the images above (1-3) were stitches from several individual images. This outing did proved the mettle of the newly acquired Samyang AF 85/1.4 for my needs ... it's bright, light and at 85mm the star distortions at the images were negligible. Vignetting at the edges was easily removed with software, the purple fringing at 1.4 is only visible at huge magnifications. All in all, I'd bring this lens to my next Milkyway party and next season I'm sure to pair it with the Star Adventurer and Deep Sky Stacker while at it.

This year qualifies for "dismal" as far as Milkyway is concerned. Typically between the months of Aug-Nov you would have been able to make at least 3 outings for that entire duration. However the odds against it are pretty high once you put clouds, rain, and full moon as potential detractors.

Quads Nov 2018

BTFL 3.4.0 Upgrade

Managed to upgrade several older quads with BTFL 3.2.2 on Betaflight F3 flight controller to BTFL 3.4.0/3.4.1 today:

Genius1 BTFL 3.4.0
Genius2 BTFL 3.4.0
Iflight7 BTFL 3.4.0
Dragon220 BTFL 3.4.1
GEPRCONE BTFL 3.4.1
PUDA240 BTFL 3.4.1
REAL250 BTFL 3.4.1
GTR7-300 BTFL 3.4.1
GTM7-300 BTFL 3.4.1


These quads were all on Betaflight F3 flight controller and were easily flashed using the ImmersionRC driver fixer in DFU mode.

Also tried upgrading EX220-2 which was on Betaflight F4 flight controller however that didnt go very well with the ImmersionRC (failed, more than one device detected). Unable to sort it out using Zadig either. I cant remember how the F4 flight controllers were flashed the first time ... a boot pin maybe.

For now the first task is to upgrade all F3 flight controller quads to BTFL 3.4.1, second task is to put these through test flights and the third task is to upgrade those quads on F4 flight controllers.

Now where is that boot pin ...

Mid July Trip Home

We flew back to Malaysia in mid July after not having left Norway for the past 2 years! We spent a total of 4 weeks in Malaysia inclusive of 1.5 weeks in KL, a couple days in Miri and a 3 day weekend in Penang visiting family, the rest was spent mulling about in Pasir Puteh with really no major undertaking took place.

The KL portion was spent getting new passports, getting new glasses, checking out new gadgets for those who needed it and spending time with family in PJ. We drove to PP via the East Coast spending a couple of days in Kuantan and Kuala Trengganu visiting family along the way.

Things go very slowly in Malaysia if you are not there physically to move things along. Fortunately most of the items on the finances list got done : closed the RHB investment account and put money back into EPF, transferred some funds from EPF to children's account as well some other smaller items like update drivers licence, IC and credit cards pins etc.

The time in PP was always a dragged on affair having accomplished not very much other than the usual cleaning up of the house and fixing up a few things in and around the house. It gets frustrating at times looking at the condition of the house. Every year it seems to just deteriorate that bit more. A big change from previous years was that we finally sorted out the title with the bank after having paid off the loan almost a year ago. The deeds to the property were finally received about month after our return to Norway.

The upkeep of the Merkang house falls back onto Suryani last year after our contractor and friend found better and more profitable venture elsewhere. So now it's Suryani who manages the monthly mowing of the lawn and general upkeep. She's also been given the task of keeping the interior of the house mopped and cleaned on a monthly basis by a cleaner of her choosing.

There are a few oustanding things left still to be taken care of but then time is always short to be able to execute all of them. Installed a new water pump, swapped out the bed in Mommy's old room, cleaning up the courtyard, planted five new trees, swapped out the power board  ... the list of incomplete items are however endless : swap out the main gate, swap out the front and back doors of the back house, swap out the trellises in the courtyard and install new solar lights.

Days passed by quickly whenever we are in PP, before you realised it the time has come to make the trip back to KL again.

Tok Wan in Semerak with Tok Ngah,  Tok Mek's step son (from her last husband's previous marriage-Semerak line) and her son from her previous marriage (Machang line) respectively ... elder and younger brother of Mom's (another marriage-Bachok line). The family tree is so complicated that it almost always confuses everyone when the subject comes up.

A Cambodian shadow puppet performance in Penang that we happened to stumble upon on the weekend. The video was made for Ameer (nephew) who is a shadow puppet afficionado since childhood.

A flight on the Iflight8C in Setiu. Brought back two drones but only managed to fly one of them only once and the other not at all!

A flight in the front yard with Abe Lan and Rifqi (voice in the background). This year there was no photography session conducted at all out in the paddyfields.

We took a couple of days to drive back to KL via KT/KLIA, return the rental car, checked in to the hotel and took the train/taxi home to PJ. By the 13th of Aug we were back at KLIA for our flight to Norway via Amsterdam.

A total of 4 weeks holiday at the end of which which we needed another big rest up when we got back home!

Summer Hike in July

This summer seems the best one yet. There were many days with warm weather, puffy clouds and bluesky. In the west coast summer can be a hit and miss sometimes, this year however summer clearly bucked the trend. The worst summer are those with eternal gloom, lower ish temperatures and permanent shapeless full cloud days, gloom hanging around the entire typical summer months.

This summer we managed a couple of cabin stays from May all the way till late in the season. Hikes, drone flying were made possible in relatively pleasant temperatures all around.

It's windy at 1100m!

The beach of course will be crawling with people to the max ... it's a warm summer, what did you expect?

NEW BUILDS 2

More new builds ... these should be the last few builds for now.

Kermit-1 rebuilt with a new X220 frame

X6R-230 mini version of the X6R-250

Iflight 8-B

ASD-230 the last build of the season.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA 15TH JUN 2018

SELAMAT HARI RAYA 15TH JUN 2018

15TH June 2018, Stavanger. Norway

NEW BUILDS

New builds ... Geprc 7 in 280mm, Realacc Martian 7in 300mm and Kermit-2 refurbished wit a new frame.

GEPRC 7

MARTIAN 7

KERMIT 2