This week has been crazy crazy crazy. While everyone else is in the holiday mood, I’ve been working as if I was one of Santa’s elves. Had portrait shoots nearly everyday and I’ve been trying to catch up with my photo editing before the backlog drowns me. Aiming to get everything done before the year ends for delivery to my clients. Chuga chuga choo choo!

December 22 (Tues)
WOD 122209
Deadlift 2-2-2-2-2
Results: 65, 70, 75, 85, 90

then:-
In 10 minutes, complete as many rounds as possible of:
3 Kettlebell Double Press @ 24kg(M)/16kg(W)
12 Medicine Ball Cleans @ 10kg(M)/5kg(W)
Results: 8R + 3 (press 12kg)

Diane
Results: 8:59 (132lbs)
FML, previously in Sept I did 112lbs this was an increase of 20lbs and my time was 6:58 previously. Urghhh. Had expected to maintain my time with the increase of weights but it was quite a struggle.

December 24 (Thurs)
WOD 122309
Weighted Pull Up 1-1-1-1-1-1-1
Results: 20 | 21.25 | 21.75 | 22.25 | 23 | 23.5 | 24

Tabata Mash Up - Push Ups and Sit Ups
Eight rounds of:
20 secs Max Reps Push Ups
10 secs Rest
20 secs Max Reps Sit Ups
10 secs Rest
Results: Total 121 | 104
Push Ups 22 | 23 | 15 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 12 | 11
Sit Ups 15 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 12
Surprisingly I did more push ups than sit ups. Wata..?!?

Dec 27 (Sun)
Mini Murph
1km run - 50 Pull Ups - 100 Push Ups - 150 Squats - 1km run
Results: 43:17
Park workout with some of the PM boys. I had the great ambitions of doing the full Murph initially. Fat chance of that yo. Torturous but fun. Yes, I’m sick in the head. Lil bit ;)

December 14, 2009 (Mon)
WOD 121209
With a continuously running clock, do one Deadlift the first minute, two Deadlifts the second minute, three Deadlifts the third minute… continuing for as many minutes as you are able.
Use as many sets as needed to complete the Deadlifts for each minute.
Deadlift @ 100kg(M)/60kg(W)
Results: 10mins + 3
8th minute onwards was a mind game. Absolutely.

WOD 121409
In 20 minutes, do as many rounds as possible of:
5 Handstand Push Ups
5 Pull Ups
5 Kettlebell Swings @ 32kg(M)/24kg(W)
Results: 12 + 5, 5.
Swings were a killer 0.o

WOD 091216 Wednesday (from www.crossfit.com)
For time:
21 Pull-ups
21 Handstand Push-ups
18 Pull-ups
18 Handstand Push-ups
15 Pull-ups
15 Handstand Push-ups
12 Pull-ups
12 Handstand Push-ups
9 Pull-ups
9 Handstand Push-ups
6 Pull-ups
6 Handstand Push-ups
3 Pull-ups
3 Handstand Push-ups
Handstand push-ups are “nose to floor” and pull-ups are “strict” or non-kipping.
Results: 20:20 (HSPU were half and pull-ups were strict)

WOD121709 (Thurs)
“Jackie”
100 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls @ 20kg
50 Thrusters Barbell @ 45lbs
30 Pull Ups
Results: 31:47

Not long after shooting lil Hayley’s 1st birthday party, I had the pleasure of taking family portraits for this cute family of three. Together with her doting parents Boon Yow and Julea, we spent a sunny morning together where lil Hayley showed me just how ‘cool’ a baby can be ;)

Boon Yow and Julea, thanks so much for having me shoot your first ‘official’ family portraits. You’re both so accommodating and friendly that it was an absolute breeze to shoot your session! And I was pleasantly surprised by just how many nice spots there were to shoot around your housing compound. Plus the lovely sunny weather, it made for an awesome portrait session! Will give you a buzz soon :D

Here’s some of my favourites from the day.

This portrait session was organised a couple of months back when the Oei brothers decided to give their mum Piek See a family portrait session as an early birthday gift. Of course, she didn’t know about it till a couple of days before the session.

By then, the boys had not only organised to have an adorable, cute, charming, funny, witty and not to mention humble as well as muscular photographer *cough*me lah*cough* but they had also organised a two-night stay at Grand Dorsett Subang as well as a make up artist for her. Isn’t that uber sweet? Kids, learn from these boys!

I’ve known the brothers for quite some time now as they’re trainers at Pushmore (except for Ian, who’ll be working out there next year :D right Ian? Hehe) and while I’ve never told them this, but ever since I met them, I’ve always thought to myself, “Dah-yum, these boys are well brought up!”. So when I got to meet Piek See, I understood why the boys are such gentlemen :)

Piek See, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you! Hope you enjoyed the session as much as I enjoyed hanging out with you and your three (big) little boys. Thanks again for the yummy Japanese lunch and hope you all have fun relaxing (and eating!) with the rest of the family in Hong Kong. And boys, thanks for having me shoot your first ever family portrait in aaaaages, I had fun! Oh, and don’t bother exercising during the holidays, I need time to catch up! :p Have a blessed Christmas ahead!

The boys also double as Piek See’s bodyguards when they go on family outings :p

Boy band shot!

Edit December 21, 2009: John-Hans, you didn’t have to sing accolades about me on your blog, but you did :) For that, I am truly humbled and grateful. Its shooting clients like your family which reminds me why I gave up so many things to pursue this dream career of mine, why having this passion for what I’m doing now is worth it. Thank you :)

No I haven’t fallen off the edge of the world.

For those who follow my (mostly inane >.<) twitter updates, you would know that the past couple of weeks has been a whirlwind! The fantabulous type of whirlwind :D It being the peak season for wedding and portrait photographers in Malaysia, I’m sure fellow photographers would understand how crazily busy it can get.

Not too busy to have a bit of a life (which for me means going for a workout :p Yay!) but busy enough to have neglected this lil corner of webspace for the past THREE weeks! That IS a long time, isn’t it? Didn’t even realise it has been that long of an unintended hiatus til I checked the date of my last post!

Despite having a ridiculously long ‘to-do list’, decided to take a breather from editing to blog as I miss yakking in this lil blog of mine. So what’s been happening? Well, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot quite a number of absolutely fun portraits, a wedding in Kota Kinabalu as well as meet up with a few uber nice couples who are hiring me for their weddings next year (Yay! Can’t wait!).

When I tell friends about how nice some of my clients are, they’ll jokingly (I think) ask me “Did you scare them into being nice with your biceps?” Of course not! Especially not now when my muscles have shrunk due to not working out consistently *sobs*

Anyway, before I continue on senselessly with my verbal diarrhoea, here’s a compilation of some of my favourite shots from some recent sessions. wOOt!

For those who check out this blogsite regularly, you would recognise The Chow Family as Jacqueline is one of my good friends :) I actually shot their ROM, wedding ceremony, her pregnancy, her first kid and now her complete family of four. Its absolutely great to be part of their life this way! Jacqueline and Chak Leong, thank you so much for your support from waaaay back then ;) Hugs

When I received Diane’s email requesting for a portrait session as she had ‘reached a turning point’ in her life, my curiosity was piqued. Turns out this absolutely friendly lady will be migrating to Perth with her family before Christmas and she wanted to mark her stay in Kuala Lumpur! Her session was held at Traders Hotel where she and her husband first stayed when they arrived in Kuala Lumpur sometime back and I think it was rather apt what with the KLCC and the park nearby :) Diane, all the best with your new home down under and thanks for being such a breeze to work with! 

Alicia and Andrew recently had their registration of marriage (ROM) at Thean Hou temple and yours truly was honoured to be part of the ceremony alongside their close friends and family members. These two are an absolutely fun-loving couple and I had a blast shooting them that day. For real! There were also quite a lot of hilarious (albeit a bit wacky? hehe…) shots from that day, but I won’t be posting them up here lest they hire a hitman to get me ;p Alicia and Andrew, heartiest congratulations again on your nuptials! You two rock, big time :D

Rosalie and her family were absolutely accommodating! We had a short and sweet session at their cosy home and throughout the whole session, lil Bella was snoozing away without a care in the world! She did open her eyes for a while to see what the commotion was all about, but decided it wasn’t worth her beauty sleep! Hehe…And their family corgi, Coco was absolutely cute too! It was an absolute pleasure to be part of your first ‘official’ family photo :) 

Lil Hayley’s 1st birthday party was held at Bijou in Mont Kiara and it was an absolutely festive affair with like a gazillion lil kids in attendance and fun & games to be had by all of them! Party planner Yee Send did a fantabulous job with the decor and organising the themed party. Had fun seeing the lil ones goin’ wild during the games and yes, I did have them yummy cupcakes too ;)

It’s been quite awhile since I last met up with Juliana and Pelle so it was really nice to have the time to catch up with them and their baby girl Luna, whom I’ve never met before. Look at her! Isn’t she adorable? They make an absolutely gorgeous family and I must say, it made for an easy shoot ;p Julie & Pelle, you two make great parents! Catch up soon. Hugs 

I had tons of fun shooting Theresa’s session as she was up for all of my suggestions. We mixed things up a bit by going to two locations so 1 part of the shoot was at a park and another part was at a more urban location. Theresa, you worked it girl! And congratulations to you and your fiance on your wedding next year. It’s gonna be a blast ;) 

Kenny & Mandy’s wedding in Kota Kinabalu was started off with the ‘chip san liong’ (picking up of the bride) where the groom & his bestmen had to go through ‘gruelling’ tasks to get thru’ to Mandy ;) They were great sports as they went thru’ it all whole heartedly. This was followed by a tea ceremony at home and reception at the Magellan Sutera where they had 700 guests. Absolutely grand dinner!

The day after their wedding, I had the pleasure of shooting Kenny & Mandy’s post-wedding portraits. We didn’t have much time before sunset but managed to get some relaxed portraits of the newlyweds before it got dark. Mandy and Kenny, thanks so much for having me be part of your big day. Hope you two had fun! See you soon :)

There’s actually a couple of other portrait sessions and weddings which I would absolutely love to post up on the blog but for now, those would have to wait for its nearly 3 am and I’ve gotta get some rest before a family portrait session at 9 am. Gotta get me some snooze so that I can chugga chugga choo choo!

Til the next blogpost, have awesome days ahead peeps and thanks again for dropping by :)

Much love.

 It has been a crazy week. Returned from KK midweek and there were shoots to cover, clients to meet, emails to reply and pictures to edit. I’m still halfway through this week’s to do list and its already Sunday evening 0.o Hope to get all this done by Wednesday so that I can have a somewhat regular workout schedule again.

WOD12102009
Tabata Mash Up: Squats & Ring Dips
Eight rounds of:
20 seconds Max Reps Squats
10 seconds Rest
20 seconds Max Reps Ring Dips
10 seconds Rest
Results: 156, 71 = 227

21reps of;
Dumbell Squat Snatch 20lbs
Pushups x 2
Results: 8:30
Supposed to be followed by 15 & 9 reps but I pamchiatdotcomdotmy :p Shoulders and triceps burning bay-beh!

Deadlift 3 - 3 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 1
Results: 70 - 75 - 80 - 85 - 90 - 95

December 11, 2009 (Fri)
Swam 12 laps

December 13, 2009 (Sun)
Swam 20 laps

Breakfast: Half a bowl of cereal with soy milk
Pre-workout: 1 scoop of protein
Brunch: Half a bowl of rice with a serving of veges (don’t know what they were :p) and honey chicken + 1 can of 100 Plus + 1 soy latte grande with triple shots. Wheeeeeee!!
Tea & Dinner: Half roasted chicken and 1 capsicum
Dessert: A chocolate bar

WOD 12012009 (Tues)
For time of:
Run 400m
100 Pull Ups
Run 400m
Results: 22:46
Didn’t really run, just did a leisurely jog during the running portions of this workout. For the 100 pull ups, I broke it down initially to 5’s, then 3’s and finally 2’s :p Apparently my pull ups are still quite strict and the kips that I thought I was doing are not full kips. Aiseyman! Have to learn how to kip properly la.

Wed Dec 2
Lunch: 10 meatballs & chips
Dinner: Assam fish, broccolli and rice
Dessert: Mango loh :D
Swam 15 laps of 25 metres

Thurs Dec 3
Breakfast: Half a bowl of cereal with soy milk
Post workout: 100 Plus and a scoop of protein
Lunch: 6 pieces of sushi and a cup of white coffee
Aftn snack: 1 chicken thigh, 20 cherry tomatoes and a stick of cheese. Yum!
Angie - 100 Pull Ups, 100 Push Ups, 100 Sit Ups, 100 Squats
Results: 31:30
ZOMG! This is worse than when I did Angie in April 6 (23:45). Soepicfaildotcomdotmy >.< Pull ups slowed me down, the kip move is STILL eluding me -________-”

Fri: Dec 4
Lunch: Half a bowl of rice, curry chicken and a bit of spinach + iced white coffee
Pre-workout: 1 kiwi fruit and a cup of white coffee
Post-workout: 100 Plus + 10 cherry tomatoes
Dinner: 1 dragonfruit and 1 red capsicum + 100 Plus
21-15-9 reps for time of:-
Dumbell Power Snatch @ 45lbs(M)/35lbs(W) L & R
Ring Dips
Results: 10:28 (25lbs, RD+RB)
Went light as my form isn’t exactly perfect for the power snatch.

Tabata Something Else:
Results: 43, 86, 89, 146 = 364
Pamchiatdotcomdotmy. My triceps were feeling the burn half an hour after this workout. Madness!

Anna-Rina Photography (that’s me!) will be in Perth, WA for 5 weeks come 2010!

I’ll be down under for wedding photography and a couple of portrait sessions between February 24 - March 30, 2010. Seeing that I’ll be there for quite some time, I’m opening up bookings for additional portrait sessions.

If you’re interested in getting a fun-filled, relaxed portrait session with your significant other, family, friends or even a solo session, gimme a holler at info(at)anna-rina.com for more details. You can also check out some images from recent portrait sessions here.

Spread the love and have an awesome week ahead! x

Thanks to Enrick for the image & Chak of Foldees for designing the below ;)

Didn’t manage to workout on Mon & Tues as I was busy with shoots, emails and editing. Which is normal but somehow Mon & Tues seemed particularly busy 0.o

Hours of Sleep: 9 hours BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SO HAPPYYYY!
Brunch: Cereal with soy milk
Lunch: 4 slices of lamb and a large portion of mix veges, 1 sprite and 1 chocolate muffin

Okay, after that I can’t remember what I had for the next couple of days cos I forgot to note it down. Soepicfaildotcomdotmy.

WOD 112509 (Wed)
Four rounds of:
Run 400m
Rest 2 minutes
*Make each run an all-out effort. Try to keep your times for each run as close as possible.
Results 1:24 | 1:34 | 1:47 | 1:50
My calves were feeling the burn from second round onwards. Smoke summore!

Back squat 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3
Results: 40 | 50 | 60 | 60 | 62.5
Kinda scary doing back squats. Even though its only 3 reps, I was thinking to myself ‘what if I injure myself??!?!”. Hmm…in hindsight I might’ve pulled my lower back muscle doing back squats instead of snatches.

3 rounds of
10 Deadlifts 55kg
10 Pull Ups CTB
Results: 9:26
Did this after the backsquats. Combine this together with CTB and bodyweight deadlifts, one turns into a pussy in no time. Meowww!

WOD112609 (Thurs)
150KB Snatches for Time
Results: 13:01 (12kg)
Didn’t even attempt to lift 16kgs as I knew my form was gonna run off by the first 50 snatches. Form wasn’t perfect as I ended up swinging the kettlebell half the time instead of thrusting it upwards. Practice!

3 rounds of;
50 Sit Ups
20 HSPU
Results: 8:03
I *heart* sit ups and HSPU :D

Nov 28 (Sat)
400m walking lunges
Results: 9:32
Couldn’t do the wod cos of my back so opted for lunges as it was one of the few exercises which didn’t affect my back. Bubble butt, here I come :p

Sidenote: On Thursday, I felt a slight pain on my lower back, it was painful even when I was standing especially whenever I arched my back. Took a day off working out on Friday thinking it was just a minor thing. Come Sat, I couldn’t even lift light weights without feeling the twinge on my back, so after Pushmore and lunch, headed over to the Oriental which specialises in sports injury. I’ve been there a couple of times prior to this to treat an old shoulder injury which took a while to recover. This time round, I could feel the difference immediately after the 10 - 15 minutes session. Now I just need to take a week off doing any back workouts. But the barbell’s SO TEMPTIIIINGGG!

Looking back at the few workouts done within the week, I think I must’ve pulled a muscle when I was doing the backsquats (AND the deadlift thereafter >.<). Need to pace my workouts next time to avoid these sorta injuries. Form form forrrrmm.