Eiffel Tower

Unfortunately, I did not have many worthy shots of the Eiffel Tower during my short time in Paris. Other than those taken from outside of my hotel (posted here), below are the remaining shots that I like to share.

To commemorate France presidency of EU, the Eiffel Tower was lit up with in blue, and special twinkling light starts-off from 8pm onwards every hour into the night. Pictured here is my wife taking a shot of the lighting with our Fujifilm F11.

If you like to see more photos that I've taken at Paris, click here for all my previous posts related to Paris.

Evening at Arc de Triomphe, Paris

Continuing from my last post on Paris, here some shots of the Arc de Triomphe, located at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

It was drizzling that evening and it was difficult to get the shot shown above (setting up tripod, having people looking at you, wiping rain droplets off the lens etc). Still, those element gave a bit more drama to the shot, especially where cars had their head light on due to low light situation.

Pedestrian underpass is available to reach the center of the arch.

While I was setting up my tripod, the French police stopped me from doing so, said the tripod might damage the floor. Floor is made of stone, while my tripod legs have rubber tip... Anyway, not wanting any trouble with the police, I put down my backpack, rest my camera on the bag and took the shot above.

Finally, the arch was lit for the night. Got better colour with this shot, done without tripod.

As with most historical monuments here in Paris, the arch has plenty of intricate designs and artistic sculptures. There are four big sculptures on the wall of the arch, plenty of small ones at the top, and some more inside it. Shots below show just how intricate these sculptures are.

With all the sun light gone, took one last shot of the arch with my wife, before we retreat to our hotels.

If like to see more photos that I've taken at Paris, click here for all my previous posts related to Paris.

Very hot day at Pulau Ketam

I can't recall when was the last time I visited Pulau Ketam (Crab Island). I guess it could be about 15 years ago. So it was my curiosity of how much would Pulau Ketam had changed that I agreed to Jeff's invitation to go for this 1/2 day trip (these 1/2 day trips is turning into a de-facto standard trip length for our impromptu photo trips).

With reference to www.pulauketam.com, Pulau Ketam used to be an inhabited island full of mangrove swamp, where fishermen travelled back and forth from the mainland to catch crabs, prawns and fishes. Eventually they started to build houses on stilts and slowly the population grows to today's 6-7 thousand.

To reach the island, we took a 40-minute speed boat ride from Port Klang (KTM Komuter Pelabuhan Klang station).

These fishing boats are located at the river near the main jetty. I can see plenty of mud crabs mud skippers at the river banks.

Seems to me the residents of Pulau Ketam goes around with bicycle or motorized bicycle. I didn't see any cars on the island. Most had mastered the skill to ride the bicycle effortlessly. And for the ladies, holding the umbrella to shade themselves from the sun is an additional skill.

Above is the same bridge as the previous shot, but this time on it. Seems like there's basic traffic rules here.

The market place during late Sunday morning.

This little shabby hut is located right at a busy crossroad on Pulau Ketam. Therefore, other than being a small store selling drinks and ice kacang, it doubles as a notice board as well. Though mostly cleared off, staples previously used to stick bills wooden planks can be seen all over the place.

This old public phone booth seems to be in desperate need of conservation.... Maybe not. The wooden platform is in such bad condition that I not dare to step on it.

This was taken on a raised walking platform on Pulau Ketam. This river path is so dry, that the soil seems to crack with the exterme hot weather. PS-ed it for some infra-look.

Plenty of ships were left to the elements on the dry river banks of Pulau Ketam.

Saw these school shoes out in the sun to dry in the village of Pulau Ketam. I was thinking, haven't wear one of those for quite a while....

The above shot of the tree is the same tree seen in the background of the previous shot. I noticed lots of crows flying around, so snapped a few shots.

Above is a normal household plant. The background is the side of a family home.

Other interesting notes:
Bumped into a big group of photo enthusiast with some bikini ladies, near by where I took the previous flower shot. Interesting indeed. I wonder how the residents feel about having bikini ladies hanging around outside their home...