35 – Tukang Rantek Claudius

Yo wassup & tabi basa everybody!

After two weeks of silence, Hip Hop Night Returns, this time is back with more fun and different face of peoples, as this night is the night reserved for those who can’t make it on the first dinner held on 1st Nov. I have written about it in my blog, linked here.

Theme

Fundamentally, the theme of choice for this year’s dinner is Hip Hop, beating the other themes, where one of it is Sci-Fi (a totally awesome theme but very difficult to prepare for). You might ended up getting everyone wearing T-shirt. So why don’t we just use Hip Hop theme instead, where it is so simple to get ready to? Pick a shirt, jeans, come with you own family and ensure you have the most important dress of all, attitude. As mentioned by Jill, our lady boss, hip hop is all about attitude. Also, it is the time for you to walk in the hip hop posture, where you don’t have to walk in the right manner, for just one night. That’s what they are doing for hip hop, isn’t it?

As usual, the event begins with the arrival of guests starting at 6pm. The official events kicks off at 7pm, starting with the speech from our lady boss, Jill. She’s well-dressed for the night, fitting the theme of hip hop.

Emcee & Entertainers

Sheron and Malcolm are the emcees for the evening, and they have one duty to ensure that the night is a good night for everybody. Sheron was the previous emcee for Gawai night which I directed, and I know she can deliver. Malcolm was the technical person for that event, and this evening is the first time I saw him doing emcee job. Not bad, I would say. It is good to know that you have a new face that you can count on for whatever event that might come in the future.

Entertaining us that evening is DJ Yosak, one of the well-knowned DJ in Miri scene, and he has been performing at Alice in Borneoland, at Marina, Miri.

For this dinner also, Beatboxer Tony Ngu also made his return. This time, seems like the words about his performance on 1st Nov was spread, and this time he has more crowd. As you can see, parents and kids are flocking in front of the stage. I truly admire the voice control that he has. I can only imagine what sort of training that he has went through. One of my acquaintances told me that he has to scream to purposely injure his vocal cord, which will make it “bigger”, and therefore he can achieve a lower bass sound using his vocal cord. That must be painful. Ouch! I am not an expert on this field, therefore I have no comment. However, Tony’s performance is interesting. You have to see it to believe it.

Lucky Draw

Following the performances are the Lucky Draws. As you can see, there is a lot of lucky person. Congralation to the winners!

Since this is a family event, it is not complete to not have it without the usual group photos. In that quest, I travel from one table to another, whilst mingling around with my colleagues.

Duel of the Dress

Similar to the first dinner, the Hip Hop Night is not complete without the best dress. For the first category, i.e. Bes Dressed Ladies, we have three contenders. First, Martina Black Pink, followed by Ying Ying and Latonia. Latonia looks like she’s a Sabahan Hip Hop artist. The duel is simple; these ladies go to the stage and do their actions, in their own interpretation of Hip Hop. To win, all they need is to get the crowd to cheer for them the loudest. After a brief “duel”, Martina won!

For the Men’s category, we have Capt Lee, Arshad and M&M The Eminem. Capt Lee is well-geared for the evening, and it is quite obvious who the winner is.

Family category is more interesting, where we have four contestants; first one is Yinka J & Fam who looks like a real hip hop artist without even trying; then Kasmah and the Tang, The Malinos and last but not least, Perry T & The Crew. These family gave their best, but there can only be one winner, where Perry’s family emerged victorious from the ashes of the “battle”.

Finally, after the duel, the grand prize Lucky Draw took place. Congratulations to the winners! With that, it marks the end of the dinner.

In The End

But that does not mark the end of the relationship that we have with our friends, colleagues because it one of the blessing that God has bestowed upon us – the gift of love. Have a great week everybody!

Love Portraitures

This section is dedicated to family or couples that caught my attention that evening, where I always look for the expression of love, that you can easily find in the eyes of the person in love, from one lover to another, from father/mother to their children, from husband to wife and vice versa. It is love that keeps us going. Like a vessel, only the one whose heart is filled with love will be able to love others.

People’s Gallery

The event will not be enjoyable without the peoples that comes and make it an evening to be remembered. Therefore, this section of the gallery is dedicated to my colleagues. We had a good year, therefore let’s make the remainder of 2019 a good one. Give our best and regret nothing as we cross the finish line of 2019.

Your Tukang Rantek,
Claudius Weson

Gears used: Leica M10-P and Summilux 35 FLE.

Copyright Notice

All of the images on this site are protected by copyright laws and are the exclusive property of Claudius Weson Photography. Images may not be copied, reproduced, manipulated, used or altered in any way without written permission. The use of any photography as the basis of another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of copyright.

Tabi basa and greeting family and friends,

How was your weekend? I hope it is great and awesome as it is supposed to be. Saturday, as usual, is a day of enjoyment, unless you made a conscious decision and declare that everyday is a time to enjoy. By right, any time spent on the face of the Earth is supposed to be a time to enjoy, rather than to confine it into one singular celebration.

For me, yesterday was the day of celebration, where we celebrate the birthday of our little Jared, who just clocked his first year upon his arrival to this plane last year. It was a simple celebration, but it was indeed more meaningful since it is the time for us gather as one big family, save for one that is quite a distance away from us.

Happy Birthday To You!

For me, birthday celebration is indeed a good way to say thank you to family and friends that has been supporting us in life. It is not something that we can do every day.

Gears Used

For this celebration, I used Leica M10-P and Summilux 35 FLE. Reason for 35 mm is because I am working at tight space and have to make use of the wider angle to compose better. I can use 50mm but it would a bit too tight. A usual, for this kind of celebration, if you only have to use one lens, and one camera; a camera coupled with 35mm would be a good combination.

The used of medium-telephoto lens or telephoto lens is not encouraged unless you want to work at spot and avoid from walking around due to congested space.

Let There Be Light

In this job also I am using external light. Not because M10 can’t handle available light, but because I want to experiment with the lights.

Catechist Real in action. Yes, his name is Real.

Three boys. (Using Leica M10 & available light. Summilux 35 is good for this kind of job).

For any room-lit environment, Leica can handle it without any problem, even if you are using the Elmar or Summaron family of lenses that has aparture higher than f/3.4. M10’s excellent ISO performance is good and high enough for you to use ISO as high as 10,000 without any problem, though I always keep mine as low as possible, usually 400, because I want to have my image as technically perfect as possible.

For my experience, Noctilux is my go-to lens for challenging events, because it is the King, King of the Light, or basically King of the Night as it can capture as many photon of light as possible, without compromising the quality of the image. At the biggest aperture opening in modern Leica aspherical family of lens, it is indeed goes without a fight. The second contender is Summilux 50 FLE, that I believe many go for it instead. Though it was introduced in 2004, it is still a good lens as many Leica user is concerned. I even bought it as my first Leica lens, only to let it go to acquire the King of Light.

Therefore, my take is, for event photography, the best go-to combination is 35-50, or if you have wider such as 24 or 21 (I would go for the latter), do add that in your lens bag. If you only have to go with one lens, go for 35 (the wider the better, I would recommend f/1.4).

Tukang Rantek Life Long Learning

To those who approached me about photography and if they intend to get serious, I would suggest to them to do an event first, and get hold of the experience first-hand before moving on the next discussion. For me, photography is more than just a sniper in the distance. It is one of the most important personnel in any event. My approach of doing my photography is to interact with the event-goers, and be part of them. Why? For me, if the photographer is having a bad time, it will be reflected in his expression, thus in a way, will affect the event goers. The negative vibe will propagate and it will make the event a bit less than it is should be. However, just imagine the photographer is a cheerful one, or the one with high energy, it will create and impact to the event-goers positively. Thus making the already good event even greater. For me, that is an accomplishment.

Having said that, to each is their own, as photography job is like drawing on a piece of white canvas. The photographer can choose to be walking on the snow without leaving any footprint, or he can choose to make a snowman.

Have a good weekend!

Your Tukang Rantek,
Claudius Weson

Note: Claudius Weson is a tukang rantek (photographer) based in Miri, mainly doing portraiture (indoor / studio / outdoor photoshoot), weddings and event photography.

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Hip Hop Night Returns