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Cloudy days can give you many opportunities for taking great photographs. Once you realise how easy it is to get great images, you’ll be looking forward to a cloudy day as much as a sunny day.

During my outdoor photo sessions, cloud cover diffuses the light of the sun much like a softbox, producing a soft even light that results in less contrasts and softer effect in images. While high contrast can be quite dramatic, lower contrast allows for more detail in both the highlight and the shadow areas of your photograph. Softer light is more suitable for portraits or candid shots of people.

In spite of the differences between film and digital cameras, what you learn about changes in lighting and your compositions and setup will be equally useful with your film camera. With a digital camera, you’ll feel free to experiment without the added cost of film.

Some subjects which benefit from the diffused lighting include waterfalls in shadowy forested areas and wildlife as well as close ups of flowers and people, mostly macro photography.

Diffused lighting is not as bright as direct sunlight, and you will need to compensate with a slower shutter speed most of the time. Alternatively, you may want to widen the aperture and adjust the depth of field. You should count on your tripod for wide or telescopic shots. The picture can be blurred by even slight hand or body shake with really slow shutter speeds, so use your remote or firmly attach your camera to a tripod if you have one. The result is really satifying.

I organized this photo session with two models last week on Monday - Jess and Stefanie at Hutan Lipur Sungai Gabai or better known as Gabai Waterfalls. One of the most spectacular waterfalls in Selangor, Gabai consists of several falls cascading from a height of about 100m to a series of small pool at the foot of the falls. The gushing water making its descent quite a spectacular sight especially after raining.

When you actually look up from the foot of the main fall, you’ll definitely go like “Oh my God, it’s so high up!”

The trip up to the shooting area consists of few hundred steps: still not as many as Batu Caves but the fact that the steps are not consistent in height and you have to turn here and there makes use feel really tired, especially for first timers. I’ve been there about 5 times already, for shooting mostly, so it’s not very stressing for me.

Stefanie posing at the falls …

Suddenly something happened … as I was shooting Jess, Stefanie slipped off the place where she was sitting and went sliding down the waterfall! Oh my God … the thing I did was turned around and there she was, sliding down the rocks with gushing waters and due to her petite size, I can barely see her, only her head and her arm swinging about. In these kinda case, you can only helpless see the person going down and you cannot jump in, unless it’s an open sea or a swimming pool.

That buffalo of a girl actually survived that fall and lived to blog about it in her own words, my goodness! Check out her side of the story here. I always think that there’s no way in hell you’re gonna walk away from a joy slide in Gabai. From where we’re shooting, if you slide from the top fall all the way to the bottom pool, you’re talking about 20-30 meters of slide couple with whacking yourself with random sizes of rocks before you hit the pool after a 7 foot drop.

Stefanie, I TABEK SAMA LU to the MAX! LOL!

Some shots of Jess …

We left about 6pm+ and I was really tired, as usual. Had dinner near Jess house and that concluded one of my many photo sessions at Gabai Waterfalls. Gabai is at Ulu Langat actually, about an hour from KL and 40 minutes from Cheras. Take the Cheras - Kajang way and head towards Batu 9 Ulu Langat after you pay the first toll. There’s a signboard from the highway itself showing ‘Hutan Lipur Sungai Gabai’. It’s extreme quiet during weekdays but can be crowded during weekends and public holiday. Parking is Rm2 for the whole day.

Attended the AIME (Asian International Motorcycle Expo) at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre last week. The Rm10 is a lil’ steep for a one-hall event and photographers had to pay Rm5 extra for admission. There were about 20 custome bikes on display, two main booths, namely NAZA and MOMOS. I was wondering where was Suzuki, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Honda. If they’re all there with their latest bikes then the Rm10 would’ve been worth it all. There were booth girls there: 4 for NAZA, 2 for AGV and 4 cuties at Gudang Garam.