Misty Mountain High

Mount Kinabalu, silhouetted against the morning dawn while the morning mist, still curling sleepy at its foot. The beginning of a new day, on the plains of Taun Gusi, the rice bowl of Sabah.

Sabah's Land's End

Tanjung Simpang Mengayau is malay for the "Wandering Crossroad Promontory". Geographically, it is the Land's End Of Sabah or in the tourism industry, it goes with "The Tip Of Borneo". In Sabah, this is the northeastern tip, which is easily accessible to the public. The northwestern tip of Sabah, is not as easy and attractive.

The white beach you see is called Pantai Kalampunian. From where you are standing, it stretches for about 2km in a crescent shape, with groves of shady casuarina/pine trees.

The water is pretty warm, and azure, while the beach is fine white sand. As it is on the most northernmost and the nearest landmass is in the Philipines, and far from sealanes, the water is free from water pollution.

About 10 minutes drive from this beach, is a resort called Sunjamal Resort, run and owned by a Swiss lady and her husband.

This photo was taken around noon, where the position of the sun works very well with polarizing filter. This way, the quality of the water is seen better and the clouds, well defined.

Coconut Grove Island

An island off the coast of Semporna, with a small cluster of stilted houses off its beach. Maiga island is one of the 8 islands making up the Tun Sakaran Islands Park, a group of islands, about 90 minutes boatride from Semporna. The nearest islands, Bodgaya and Bohey Dulang is only 20 minutes away to the east of this island. The viewfinder is facing north.

When shooting from a moving boat,or you can't get the boat to keep still, shoot at the highest shutterspeed possible, at your current ISO. You probably have to select the widest aperture for this. A good starting point is 1/1000s. If you can't get this, select the next ISO.

The best position to shoot an island or a part of it, is from the sea which is not exactly a stable place to shoot from. When shooting out at sea or expecting to see a body of water, clipped on your polarizer. It helps to remove reflection and saturate the colors. When shooting with polarizer,keep the sun somewhere behind or above you. It doesn't work well when the sun is anywhere in front.

Longhouse Live

The Rungus and most rural ethnics of Sabah, lives a quiet and bucolic lives, amidst its endangered verdant environment. They don't have as much rush and jam like us urban dwellers have to go through daily, for whatever reasons that are driving us into. Or the lives we perceived to get. These rural dwellers live a quiet life.

The Rungus wakes up to a cool misty dawn, with the skittish chatters of mother hens and strutting roosters, catwalking down the rafters. Tangy scent of fresh coffee and fried banana strips wafts in from the bamboo kitchen and the hushed undertone of their children's exasperation, getting ready for school. You could also hear the muffled coughs and gags and the creaks of the bamboo splits floor, as some of the native move around groggily, still draped in their night sarongs.

The afternoon is just as quiet if not, for the distant incessant shrill of insects in the sweltering forest. The Rungus men and women, usually by this time, had their lunches and find themselves indolent on the veranda, hoping to catch that incidental whiff of breeze, coming through the gratings against the tepid longhouse atmosphere. In one or two of this groups, you will find someone red in the mouth, after effect of gnawing betel leaf and nuts.

The night is just as lacklustre as the day. Right after dinner which usually comes right after sunset, some adults would gravitate back to their favorite spot on the bamboo veranda, mending their nets or continuing with their handicraft works or join their children crosslegging on the linoleum floor in front of a TV. Usually after the prime time news at 9 or a P. Ramlee reruns, one by one as if on biorhythmic schedule, the lights flicker off and the longhouse is dark again, blending in with the night.

In the photo, a middle aged Rungus married couple, on the covered veranda of a longhouse, getting quality time over betel leaf and nut afternoon talk.

The Mother & The Sea

A morning on an island, somewhere in the Celebes Sea, off the coast of Semporna. She was alone at home, sitting with both her legs dangling by the sides of the prow of her lepa-lepa. With her long pole, she slowly pushes her home forward on the water along the beach to a water village. Cradling on her lap in the shade of her body is her baby girl. She has no one else to babysit her baby, while she propels her home forward.

Behind her,in the midsection of her lepa lepa is the empty thatched hut where she lives with her family, just like any other nomadic sea Bajaus families, roaming this part of Sabah.

To these Sea Bajaus,their boats or lepa-lepa as it is to them, is their maritime home sweet home.
They do just about everything on this floating home. Only when they need to get their staple food (tapioca or sagu flour), fixed their boat and bury their dead, only then they would set foot on land.

The Land Below The Wind

Sabah, or formerly North Borneo, is the Land Below The Wind. This islandic country, 3rd largest island in the world, has the highest peak in South East Asia standing at 4095.2m on its mountainous backbone and the white sandy beaches on its water edges with the teeming rainforest in between.

My assignment: To shoot Sabah as much as I can and to put words into the picture. Within this journal, what I believed photography is and how one must see through it, so other can understand what you have taken.