The day prior to Angie, Danny and Jayden’s family portrait session, it rained endlessly. As regular blog readers would know, 90% of my portrait sessions are done outdoor and having good weather is somewhat vital to make my sessions a success. So it was with great fervour that I did the mental sundance the night before (& rallied my Facebook friends to do the same ;p). Lo and behold, we had awesome weather on the day of the session! Ahhhhh, the wonders of collective positive thinking!

Sessions with toddlers are done as quickly as possible so that they don’t get aggravated and end up crying throughout the session. It was the same for Angie, Danny and lil Jayden’s session. We breezed through the session in record time and managed to get all the shots before lil Jayden got tired.

Angie and Danny, it was a pleasure to meet you two as well as Jayden. I had fun during the session and I hope you did too! Have a good trip back in KK and also Australia :)

I wasn’t the only sun-lover during the session ;)

November 17 (Tues)
WOD111609
For time of:
Run 800m
21 Handstand Push Ups
9 L-Pull Ups
Run 800m
15 Handstand Push Ups
15 L-Pull Ups
Run 800m
9 Handstand Push Ups
21 L-Pull Ups
Results: 31:46
Subbed the run with 400skips (for 800m run). Thought the skips were gonna be easier. I was dead wrong >.< Love, love doing HSPU and pull ups. Its the run which whacked me out. Meh.

WOD 111909 (Thurs)
Three rounds for time of:
Run 400m
12 Deadlifts @ 100kg(M)/60kg(W)
21 Pull Ups
Results: 27:38 (CTB)
Enjoyed this workout. Love, love doing deadlifts and pull ups. Its the run which whacked me out. Waitaminute. That sounds familiar…

WOD 112009 (Fri)
45-30-15 reps for time of:
Kettlebell Swings @ 24kg(M)/16kg(W)
Burpees
Results: 24:21
Burpees. Breathless.

For time:
100 Ring Dips
Results: 11:54 60 squats Red band

WOD 112109 (Sat)
For time of:
21 Power Cleans @ 60kg/40kg
42 Push Ups
15 Power Cleans @ 60kg/40kg
30 Push Ups
9 Power Cleans @ 60kg/40kg
18 Push Ups
Results: 12:00 (35kg)
Enjoyed the power clean. Gonna try this workout again sometime soon with 40kg :D

4 Rounds of:
50 Walking Lunges
50 Sit Ups
Results: 10:57
Worked that booty! Had DOMS on my quads for two days after 0.o

Huey Yee and Mun Keat joined me for a workout at Pushmore on Saturday. They not only did one workout, but they joined me for a second one after resting a bit. Props to them! :D

I shot Gibran and Sherena’s engagement a couple of months ago so it was a reunion of sorts when I headed over to Sherena’s parents home to cover their solemnisation ceremony. Having familiar and welcoming faces around, family members who were absolutely at ease and a loving couple to boot made my job much easier :)

Gibran and Sherena, thank you for having me be part of the celebrations! It was great being part of the festivities and seeing you two celebrate your union with your family and close friends. Hope you two had tons of fun during your honeymoon in the land Down Under. See you next week!

The group pictures weren’t exactly ‘conventional’ ;)

Its a Johor Bahru tradition to throw coins out to the kids after the blessing ceremony (and this case, the adults too ;p)

The past week has been absolutely great! I didn’t have any shoots during the weekend so I took the opportunity to take some time off editing to have a bit of personal life ;) Spent Saturday afternoon on a photo outing with my friends Sherrie and Bang Qin. It has been aaaaaages since I last went on a photo outing just for fun. 

There was no set plan and we just wandered around town and finally ended up at the National Museum which I love, love, love! Didn’t have much time to check out the whole place as we were in a rush but I’ll definitely head back there again :) Here’s some images from our aimless wanderings ;p

It ain’t over til the fat lady sings! - shot on right by Sherrie

The museums guard kitten. Shoooo cuteeee! I want a kitty cat but my housemates all voted against it. Meh -_____-”

Psychedelic tiles at the entrance of the National Museum. Feels like its moving huh? 

There’s currently an exhibition on traditional children’s games. 

There are a lot of school kids at the museum during weekends….

…and when I say a lot, I mean ALOT! So don’t go on weekends if you’re planning to visit ;p

More artifacts - Isn’t it amazing how simple life used to be? Everything seems so complicated thesedays, as we try to make our life more convenient with more and more so-called-helpful contraptions. 

Not only was Saturday great but Sunday was awesome as I reconnected with my first love - bouldering. Headed over to MadMonkeyz Bouldering Gym in Wangsa Maju and realised just how much I miss bouldering :) Bouldering used to be my first love and I sorta forgot about it when photography came into the picture. Hoping to balance things out a bit by taking some time off on a weekly basis to get reacquainted with it.

Anyway, the fantabulous weekend was topped up with 3 icings on the cake come Monday as I found out the following features had been released.

Ashley & Svan’s gorgeous garden wedding was featured on The Wedding Guide.


Chris & Chelle’s beautiful beach ceremony is featured in the latest issue of Bridal Guide magazine!

And yours truly is featured in this week’s Life & Style’s People section.

When the editors for both Bridal Guide and The Wedding Guide contacted me recently about featuring my recent couples in their respective media, I was absolutely ecstatic! I mean who wouldn’t be? It’s not everyday that one gets their work and their couples featured in bridal guides so this was definitely something that I got really excited about.

A huge thanks to Habeebah of Bridal Guide and Stephanie of The Wedding Guide for the features :) And much thanks to Shan of Life & Style as well for featuring me in the current ‘People’ section. Much much appreciated!

Oh, before I forget, am organising ANOTHER sharing session this Saturday. But its for working out :p Hehe…do come join if you’re free! Details here.

Seeing that the recent sharing session that I had with photography enthusiasts was such a success (more than 20 enthusiasts wrote in, thank youuuu!), I thought, why not have a workout sharing session?

I always get asked questions about what workouts I do, why do I like having big muscles, don’t I get tired working out so much, am I man or a woman, aren’t the workouts tough, etc. That’s why I’ve got this ‘fitness section‘ to my blogsite. Well, I should actually call it my workout journal but whatever.

Anywaaaaaayyyss, I would love it if you would join me for a workout, just to experience what Crossfit is all about. Especially fellow photographers. Certain *cough*you know who you are :p*cough* fellow photographers who are always saying, “Anna, aren’t you tired working out so much?!!?”. Well, shooting a full day wedding is actually 5 times MORE tiring than doing a Crossfit workout (which lasts anything between as little as 5 minutes to as much as 1 hour, depending on the workouts). So I reckon if you can shoot a full day wedding, you CAN workout!

For photographers who are not shooting this Saturday (November 21), please come join me for a workout at Pushmore this Saturday morning 930am. Its free for first timers and I am serious when I say that it is NOT as hardcore as it looks.

Most first timers would go through a warm up session (this might take a while as the instructors will explain the warm up moves to you, etc) and then do the mini Cindy workout, where you complete as many rounds of 5 pull ups, 10 push ups and 15 squats in 10 minutes, YES THE WORKOUT IS ONLY 10 MINUTES! Fo’ real!

If you can’t do a pull up, there’ll be bands provided which will make it easier. If you can’t do a full push up, you can do knee push ups which are way easier. If you can’t squat, then the only thing I can say is, “Errr….how do you take a dump at a squatting toilet??”.

Gist of it is, the workouts are scalable and anyone, and I mean anyone, can do it. One great example would be Ben, who’s a new Pushmore member. He joined Pushmore recently weighing an astounding 129kgs and within 1 month, lost 5kgs with regular exercise and (somewhat) decent diet. You can read about his journey on Hans’ blogpost here. Inspirational, no?

Huey Yee and Mun Keat will be joining me this Saturday for a workout and after the workouts’ done, we’re planning on giving ourselves a treat at a local banana leaf joint :D There’s shower facilities at the gym (bring your own towel!) and we can all head out to nom nom straight after!

So, come by Pushmore (map to the gym can be found on the main site) at 930am and we’ll start working out at 1000am and finish within an hour plus. Another half an hour for everyone to shower (there’s only 1 shower >.<) then lunch of banana leaf rice at 12noon where we can talk shop about photography! Cool no?

DISCLAIMER: I have no share in Pushmore Fitness Centre. Just wanna share my love of workouts and I seriously think that we photographers need to take some time away from our cameras and workstations and get some exercise :D There’s nothing to lose, so come come come! 

In the meantime, here’s a reminder to ourselves to eat healthy, rest well (I need MORE of that!) and take some time out to breathe. 

Much love :)

Second week of November and I forgot to track my meals and sleeping hours. Epic fail!

November 9, 2009
Went to the park with plans of completing Murph. Managed to do half of it before I started feeling self-conscious as there was an uncle staring at me doing pull-ups >.< *shy* Note to self: Drag some Crossfit buddies to park whenever I wanna attempt the workouts out of the gym.

WOD 111109
Deadlifts 5-5-5-5-5
then do:-
50 Burpees for time
Results:55 | 60 | 70 | 75 | 80 . 6:42
Deadlifts were awesome! Managed to rock out the 5 sets of 5 reps with very minimal rest in between. Then the burpees bitchslapped me back to earth -____________-” Strength versus cardio. Cardio fail!

WOD 111209
For time of:
350 Rope Skips
15 Double Kettlebell Press @ 24kg(M)/16kg(W)
250 Rope Skips
25 Double Kettlebell Push Press @ 24kg(M)/16kg(W)
150 Rope Skips
35 Double Kettlebell Push Jerk @ 24kg(M)/16kg(W)
Results: 23:48 (12kg)
My right calf was sore for two days after from doing the rope skips! Decided to go light on the kettlebell as I’m still perfecting my form (excuses excuse :p)

WOD 111309
“Tabata Something Else”
Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.
Record reps from all 32 intervals.
Results: 44 | 75 | 90 | 133
OMG. My results have deterioritated from previously. FML. http://www.anna-rina.com/?s=Tabata

November 15 (Sun)
After a long hiatus from climbing (and an EVEN LONGER one from bouldering), I finally headed over to MadMonkeyz in Wangsa Maju for a bouldering session. It took a while for me to ‘feel’ it again, but after a warm up session of traversing, the techniques came back to me. Kinda like riding a bike, you never really forget how to do it.

Managed to clean 3 routes and lost count on the attempts on 2 others :p One thing for sure, my finger strength isn’t as strong as previously. Understandable as the muscles used for climbing are somewhat different from the Crossfit workouts I’ve been doing. Nevertheless, it felt good. Felt good to reconnect with my first love (bouldering ;p) and it felt good to see part of the old climbing gang. Sure felt like the good ol’ days :)

Mei Fern works out at Pushmore, the gym which I frequent, so it came as a pleasant surprise to me when she contacted me since it’s not everyday that a fellow gym member contacts me for a shoot :)

As Mei Fern’s hubby Chun Mun had just celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks ago, she decided to surprise him with a family portrait session and I must say, that is definitely a sweet gift to give! You know the cliche saying ‘Memories last a lifetime’? Well, there ya go!

The day of the session came and I had the utmost pleasure of not only meeting Mei Fern’s husband and baby boy Joshua, but I also got to meet her parents as well as her in-laws who came along for the shoot. We escaped the rain clouds in KL and headed over to Sepang where apparently, it hardly ever rains. And true enough, the weather was perfect for the session! My mental sun dance worked!

Meet Mei Fern & her hubby :)

LOL! Joshua looks like he’s going, “Why are you shooting them?!? What about me?!!?”

Aahhhhhh…lil Joshua looks a tad bit happier now ;)




Baby burger *squish*

I had fun during the session Mei Fern! Thanks for introducing me to your whole family, it was indeed a pleasure and I sure hope that as the years go by, you all will look back on these pictures with fond memories. See you at the gym :D And yes, Chun Mun, you must come by Pushmore one of thesedays and workout with us too ;p Hehe…

A couple of months ago, I had a shoot with Dooodolls and I’ve been wanting to share the images since. This was by far one of the most fun commercial shoots I’ve done and I love it when my clients and I have the same direction for the images. Win win situation :) With the Dooodolls team as well as two awesome models - Edmund & Kylie, despite the hot weather, I had loads of fun throughout our shoot.

Check out Dooodolls at their website here and become a fan on their Facebook page here! Kai Xin, Han Vi and Darren, thanks again for the opportunity of shooting your awesome plush dolls, I *heart* Dooodolls!

Never realised I had so many different ‘poses’ when I’m shooting :p Yes, I’m not exactly the most ladylike photographer *shy* Behind the scenes courtesy of Dooodolls.

Trying a new format of blogging my workouts. Instead of daily, I’m switching it to weekly so that I can track my weekly performance. Besides workouts, will include meals and sleeping hours as well to sorta gauge how much it affects my workouts. Looking at this week’s records, it’s apparent that whenever I’ve got shoots or rushing for deadlines, my sleeping hours and mealtimes go haywire 0.o Meh.

November 2, 2009 (Monday)
Slept about 7 hours the night before. Can’t remember exact meal times too. Meh =.=
Breakfast: Cereal with soy milk (pre-workout) A scoop of protein (post-workout)
Lunch: Steamed chicken with half bowl of rice + iced white coffee
Pre-dinner: Chicken thigh + a can of tomato juice. Yums.
Dinner: Lamb sausage with a bun, tomatoes and lettuce, fries on the side
Midnight snack: A bar of Snickers :D

WOD 110209
Ten rounds for time of:
12 Burpees
12 Pull ups
Results: DNF. After doing two rounds of this I decided not to continue as I could feel my undigested cereal reverberating in my tummy 0.o I also I find workouts like this absolutely repetitive and boring *snores* The rest heckled me for not goin’ thru with it but what the heck. I’ve come to a conclusion that when I train, I’m not going up against any one else’s time but my own and I wanna do something which I enjoy instead of doing something which I reaaaaally have to force myself thru. At the end of the day, this body is my own and how far I wanna push it is entirely my own choice. So boo-yah!

J.T 21 - 15 - 9 reps for time of;
Handstand Push Ups
Ring Dips
Push Ups
Results: 8:09 (RD + Redband)
Pushed myself for this workout but did the ring dips with the red band. My HSPU’s were solid for the first round but for the second & final set, I revert back to halves. Meh >.< Gaining enough strength to endure having perfect head to floor HSPU’s are taking a bit longer than I thought it would.

November 3, 2009 (Tues)
Slept at 2:30am (eeeks! I’m slowly drifting back to my late nights. Danger! Danger!) and woke up around 8.30, so approx 6 hours of sleep. Need more!

And I might have said this before but I’ll say it again. I’ve come to notice that the more editing/layout work I’ve got, the more I feel like working out! Its kinda crazy actually because logically speaking, I SHOULDN’T be working out when I’ve got loadsa work to do cos that’ll just eat into my working time.

Any logical person would just sit their a*s down in front of their workstation and (attempt to!) finish off their work however long it may take. But yours truly just can’t hack it after staring at the monitor for log periods of time! So I ended up working out TWICE today. Yes, was feeling a tad bit guilty BUT MY BODY WAS SCREAMING FOR SOME PHYSICAL ACTIVITY!

Ok that sounded wrong. Oh dear, I’m so gonna have to park my a*s in front of my workstation for the whole of tomorrow. I’ve just got this innate desire to finish off all my clients pictures within a short period time and I end up giving myself ridiculous deadlines. Smart I am.

Breakfast 0830: Half a bowl of cereal with soy milk + a can of vegetable juice (pre-workout) A scoop of protein and a can of 100+ (post workout)
Lunch 1300: Steamed chicken with ‘nasi lemak’, small portion of veges + iced white coffee + a cup of orange/carrot/apple juice
Afternoon snack 1730: Two slices of bread with Goober Grape + 1 white coffee + 1 seaweed cracker + 1 can of tomato juice (I’m a growing child, I need my in-between meals snacks :p)
Dinner 2115: Assam fish slices with a small serving of ’siew pak choy’ and half a bowl of rice + 1 honey lemon tea
Midnight snack 0200: A pack of seaweed crackers + 1 can of vege juice

Back Squat 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3
Results: 40 - 50 - 55 - 60 - 65kg
I couldn’t rack the bar on my upper back as I could feel a sharp pain on my left shoulder blade when I did so. This could either be caused by a) my previous climbing injury or b) my scoliosis, or maybe even a combination of both. Jon W then suggested for me to rack the bar on my traps instead and whilst this made it seem like the weights were heavier, I was able to squat without feeling any pain. The first four sets were doable with good form but at the last set, my form faltered a bit at the second and third rep where I didn’t go down to a full squat. Will do lighter weights next round in order to get my form 99% perfect before I attempt to go any heavier. Form form form!

WOD 110309
For time of:
50 Double Unders
50 Push Ups
50 Double Unders
50 Ring Dips
50 Double Unders
50 Handstand Push ups
Results: 28:06
When I saw Pushmore’s twitter ‘preview’ on the WOD, I thought to myself “FML. I just did JT!” so I wasn’t thinking of doing today’s workout at all. But life being such an unpredictable thing, I ended doing it despite having slight DOMS from JT 0.o Subbed DUs with tuck jumps and the HSPU’s weren’t head to floor, just halfway >.< The first round was okay, but by the second round, I was keeling over after the tuck jumps (subbed for DUs). Managed to go quite fast for push ups and ring dips too. And by the third round of tuck jumps, I had to break it down by 10, 5, 5, 5, 7, 3, 6, 5, 4. All these met-con workouts are killers for me 0.o

Doin’ the beloved tuck jumps >.<

In the evening (1830), headed to the park and jogged 2km (12:45) and did 200 lunges thereafter (6:15). My legs are so gonna be feeling the delayed onset muscle soreness tomorrow. Which is good, that’ll force me to stay in and finish up this mountain of work.

I hope >.<

November 5 (Thursday)
Took Wednesday off working out as I was too busy catching up with work, meeting clients and also cos I was feeling the DOMS from the lunges 0.o Had a shoot at Pushmore (yes, official shoot >.<) in the afternoon and stayed on for a workout thereafter.

And cause of work, I haven’t been eating regular meals the past two days. Not good. Must get more granola bars to snack on to avoid EVER feeling hungry!
Brunch 1030: A can of tomato juice + cereal with soy milk
Lunch 1400: A granola bar, a packet of seaweed crackers + a cup of white coffee
Post-workout 1900: A can of 100+ and 1 scoop of protein
Dinner2000: A bowl of rice (I WAS HUNGRY!), assam fish slices, small serving of broccoli + Chinese tea
Dessert2100: A slice of chocolate crepe. Bliss!

WOD 110409
Weighted Pull Ups 1-1-1-1-1-1-1
Results: 20 | 21.25 | 22.5 | 23.75 | 23.75 | 23.75 | 20
Managed to increase the max weight by about 1kg. Yayyyy! But by the last rep I was damn tired already hence shifted it down to the starting weight as I wanted to try chest to bar. Only managed to get over my chin. Meh.

Jackie
1000 metres run
50 x Thrusters 20kg
30 x Pull Up
Results: Nearly 16 mins
The original Jackie’s supposed to be done with 1000 metre row but you can sub it with either 1000 metre run or 100 Sumo Deadlift Highpull. I was really dreading the run but after being told by Lynn that its waaaay easier compared to the SDHP, I did it. Thank Gawd! Cos the thrusters whacked me out! Fun workout nevertheless and I managed to improve my time by 2 minutes from previously. wOOt!

November 6 (Friday)
Aaarghhh! I’m back to my old schedule of sleeping and waking up late. Aaaargggghhhh!! Slept at 4am and woke up at 10am. Must, no I WILL, switch back to the early bird schedule on Monday! Got some administrative work done before taking a break for a Crossfit workout at Pushmore an hour before lunch. Met up with a client after that and headed off for a wedding shoot in the evening which explains the uber late dinner 0.o Most prob gonna take tomorrow off working out as I’ve got another shoot. Fellow photographers often ask me where do I find the energy to do all these workouts. Well, let me tell you that it’s waaaaaay easier compared to shooting a wedding. Soooo, I reckon that if you’re used to shooting full day weddings, working out with me would be a piece of cake! So come join me for a workout next time :D

Self reminder: PACK GRANOLA BARS FOR SHOOTS! 

Brunch 1000: Cereal with soy, 5 cherry tomatoes
Post workout 1300: A scoop of protein and a can of 100 Plus
Lunch 1430: Subway sandwich - smoked turkey with capsicum & tomatoes on wholemeal bread
Snack 1630: White coffee and a doughnut
Dinner 2300: Rice and curry chicken

WOD 110609
For time:
100 squats
2 muscle-ups
80 squats
4 muscle-ups
60 squats
6 muscle-ups
40 squats
8 muscle-ups
20 squats
10 muscle-ups
Results: 35:07 (sub MUs for 3 pull ups + 3 ring dips - RB)
Squats were torturous initially then by the 3rd set, you start hating the pull ups instead. Managed to get chest to bar for the first four sets, by the final set my pull ups were only chin to bar. Meh =.= 

November 8 (Sunday)
Swam 10 laps of 25 metres. Was ravenous after the swim!

The sun was shining and from across the fountain, I saw a pretty lady with a tall guy walking towards me. I wasn’t sure whether or not it was them, but when Tiara flashed a warm smile at me, it confirmed whatever doubts I had! What a relief it was as I was a tad bit worried I would end up approaching the wrong couple >.< We never had the opportunity to meet prior to that day, having only communicated via email from a couple of months ago so it was really nice to finally put faces to what before this were only names in my emails.

Aaron and Tiara had just returned from a weekend down south where they had a wedding ceremony which was attended by their family members and close friends. And the after-glow of the newlyweds, the nuances in their gestures which indicated the intimacy between them, the way they looked at each other, all this actually made me feel a biiiiit voyeuristic throughout the portrait session. But voyeur’s good, for that made for easy shooting ;)

On the day of our session, there was an exhibition at the park which was in conjunction with the annual Art & About exhibition organised by the city. Decided to use a few of the pictures as a backdrop as I thought they were rather apt for our session.

Jacky Ghossein’s Mamerta and Sabas, The Wedding.

Kasia Westak’s Applause





I feel happy when I look at this shot :D I love love. Wheeeee!

The moment I took this shot, was also the moment they were telling me how Aaron had proposed to Tiara :) Suh-weet!

And coincidentally, where the venue of the proposal could be seen from the park! Yes, he proposed to her at the Sydney Tower over a romantic dinner :)

Aaron & Tiara, congratulations again on your recent nuptials and thank you for the fantastic time that day! And Tiara, I loooooved the fact that you still speak Malay with a Sabahan slang despite having lived in Sydney for more than 10 years! Berabis kita nanti. Hahaha! Am absolutely looking forward to seeing you two again for your wedding reception back in Kota Kinabalu come January! Yay! Less than 3 months away :D Get ready for more cheese then! Hugs