Clouds Over Kuching

Clouds for the New Year

2012-01-28T01:10:00.000+08:00

I took this about a week before the Chinese New Year celebrations. At that time, the rain had already been a permanent fixture in the Kuching sky. Well, it still is.

This auspiciously red cloud came out one evening after the rain. I thought it was an appropriate picture to share with you guys for the Chinese New Year.

May the new year bring us more beautiful clouds! Gong Xi Fa Chai!

A Ray of Hope, Hopefully

2011-08-19T23:09:00.000+08:00

After a long stretch of dry spell, the rain is back in Kuching, as it should. I caught the ray of the sun bursting out from behind the clouds.

I'd like to see it as a divine sign of hope for us Malaysians, a sign of change much needed in this corrupted nation of ours.

A Very Special Ordinary Day

2011-06-01T08:00:00.003+08:00

These are your typical, everyday, ordinary, plain Jane, friendly neighbourhood afternoon clouds in Kuching.

And today is the first day of Gawai celebrations (although I think the binging has started way before). Please remember to turn up for work on Monday.

Happy Gawai to all those who are celebrating!

Sky On Fire

2011-05-28T08:00:00.000+08:00

I read that the dry season will probably be with us till September. In terms of getting good cloud pictures, that's great news. But I think my electricity bills will shoot up, along with petrol prices. Sunny Hill's frosties & Yong Su's Korean ice cream will definitely be doing brisk business.

Here are Kuching skies on fire.

Sunset Over Kuching

2011-05-25T08:00:00.000+08:00

I was privileged to have caught these formation. Can't remember when I took them but I don't think they happened on the same day.

More Blue Skies

2011-05-21T14:13:00.000+08:00

Okay. It's been a while since I last posted but worry not, for I have been secretly keeping this hobby up, snapping when no one was looking. There were times when the clouds were rare and in hiding, but there were also times when they came out in abundance. And now, the story continues...

Altocumulus

2011-03-15T23:23:00.000+08:00

I haven't been looking up at the sky lately so I've missed quite a number of good days. However I caught this one sometime ago.

Presenting Altocumulus. Sounds like a transformer doesn't it?

The Hidden Sun

2011-02-20T08:03:00.000+08:00

An Evening with Clouds

2011-02-17T08:00:00.004+08:00

In my very limited experience of shooting clouds,I can safely say that the best ones come out in the evenings, at the end of a super hot sunny day.

Clouds Not Very Usual

2011-02-14T08:00:00.000+08:00

Rolling Clouds

2011-02-11T08:00:00.000+08:00

Zeus, the mighty Greek God of the Sky rode by in his lighting fast chariot, leaving a trail of clouds.

That sounded romantic.

But maybe what actually happened was a mighty kancil just sped by in the sky.

Clouds at Noon

2011-02-08T08:00:00.000+08:00

Looking up at the sky in a hot sunny afternoon is not something that I can or want to do too often here in Kuching. Unless if I love getting migraines.

However there was this one afternoon where even though the sun was out in full force, it somehow didn't feel to be as hot. Maybe after a few weeks of non-stop rain, the sun was somehow neutralised, tamed & domesticated. These were the clouds on that afternoon.

The Little Cloud That Could

2011-02-04T08:00:00.000+08:00

Blue Clouds

2011-02-01T22:08:00.000+08:00

I've always been puzzled when kids colour clouds light blue. It didn't make sense.

But now I can see why.

Those little buggers were right.

Atomic Cloud

2011-01-29T09:56:00.003+08:00

I'm a happy puppy now cos the sun has decided to come out to play in these last few days before the Chinese New Year, and clouds abound in the sky.

I thought these looked like a double atomic bomb.

See how much it looks like the real deal Nagasaki atomic bomb cloud?

Either that or they look like macaroons, which sounds more comforting.

At this moment I think I need one now, and everything is beginning to look like them.

Tim Burton Cloud

2011-01-26T21:51:00.003+08:00

It has been pretty impossible to see any clear skies for the past, I don't know, 2 weeks of non-stop rain. It even got me to the point of thinking maybe I should start a new Rain Over Kuching blog. But the heavens decided to put a stop to that.

Yesterday, the sun finally came out and I snapped. Pictures, that is.

This bunch of clouds turned out to be a bit surreal, sort of Tim-Burton-Charlie-and-the-Chocolate-Factory like. It looks like the grey skies just refuses to leave in the background.

Spare Clouds

2011-01-14T13:37:00.000+08:00

It's been raining so much in Kuching & if it doesn't stop, I'll be running out of cloud pictures. But I managed to dig out a couple of spare ones to share.

Prism in the Clouds

2010-12-28T08:02:00.000+08:00

I saw this towering cloud when I was driving home from work one day quite sometime ago.

It's things like this that leaves me in awe of the grandiosity of nature, and how small we are in comparison.

Our worries are nothing compared to this. Our normal problems seem trivial.

And somewhere in the middle of this giant cloud, I caught a quick glimpse of colours.

Amazing.

Slit Clouds

2010-12-25T08:18:00.000+08:00

Although this has got nothing to do with Christmas, Merry Christmas anyway!

Painting in the Clouds

2010-12-22T19:16:00.002+08:00

If Forrest's ma saw this, she'd say "The sky is like an empty canvas. Ya never know what ya gonna git."

The Single Star

2010-12-19T18:59:00.000+08:00

It's not every night you get to see something like this.

I think the star's not really a star. It's probably one of the planets in our solar system that happens to be visible at that point in its orbit.

Vertical Cloud

2010-12-16T16:18:00.000+08:00

Here's a cloud that streches up the sky vertically. I found that pretty unique.

This photo was taken quite a while ago, so don't go looking out the window & hoping to see it out there.

Moon in the Day

2010-08-09T20:37:00.001+08:00

It's always interesting to be able to see the moon while still in the light of day. It always gives me that sense of awe at the vast expanse of space, and that strange likeness of being on another planet with a totally different set of day/night cycle.

Ride of the Valkyries

2010-08-02T20:34:00.000+08:00

For some reasons, these clouds remind me of Wagners's The Ride of the Valkyries.

Onwards, always forward & upwards.

Moon Over Clouds

2010-07-01T23:31:00.000+08:00

I took this with my new Canon 550D. Although it has a bit of noise but it's way more sensitive than my old 450D. This was basically a snapshot. The only thing I adjusted was the exposure level meter. I had to close it down a bit so that the moon doesn't bleed too much.

PUFFS

2010-06-06T00:02:00.000+08:00

Curry puffs.

Cream puffs.

Smoky puffs.

Puffs of all sorts.

Puffy AmiYumi

Just More Clouds

2010-05-16T16:06:00.000+08:00

I couldn't find any captions to accompany these shots. I guess they're just clouds in their own interesting ways.

Painting in the Sky

2010-05-01T13:26:00.000+08:00

One thing about clouds is that every morning that you wake up, you'd never get the same ones. They're like works of art, paintings in the sky.

Cloud Watching

2010-04-18T10:40:00.000+08:00

Like me, some of you may have grown up in the era of wooden houses, built from the ground up by our forefathers. Normally these type of houses are surrounded by fruit trees, chickens & lots of green which make up a natural playground. As a kid, I used to play in this kind of environment. So I loved playing with grass, stones, puddles, mud, building wooden bridges, dams & canals. It's a wonder why I didn't grow up an engineer. Maybe because I hated maths.

Anyway, that's not the direction of my story. One of my most memorable experiences include lying on the grass, cloud watching, guessing what imaginary shapes & animals might come up next in the bright blue sky. And that habit has stayed with me for most of my adult life.

Poodle.

Fish.

Shark head chasing swimmer.

Up, Up & Beyond

2010-04-08T20:35:00.000+08:00

I think this was at 42,000 feet above sea level & if I remember correctly, the temperature out there was about -42 degrees Celcius. Correct me if I'm wrong.

If I was a superhero out there, I'd be frozen dead immediately & fall down to earth like a hard frozen dead fish from the sky.

Look at how high I was above the clouds. I was flying at a level just below the deep dark space which was above me. There was not a single cloud in this zone.

And then they came.

Sky crystals.

Clouds in Flight

2010-04-01T00:13:00.000+08:00

I was glad I brought my camera with me that day. I was flying from KLIA en route to Taipei & the sun was out & it was a beautiful day to fly.

This part of the flight was the most exhilarating as the plane lifts itself out of the curtain of clouds & stayed well above everything else.

Imagine Superman flying through those clouds, skimming over them like a stone over water.

Cotton candy. Puffy pillow. Softy toilet paper.

I'm not sure which part of the peninsula this was. Probably it had just entered into Kelantan or Terengganu PAS air space, or maybe it's still somewhere over Pahang.

Imagine if we were down there. We'd look up & the clouds were way up high above. Now this was way higher than those clouds.

"What a Feeling!" - Irene Cara from the 80s Solid Gold show.

Clouds Over Wings

2010-03-03T00:24:00.000+08:00

Even though the film was released in 1953, I was lucky enough to have caught Disney's Peter Pan when it somehow played in a little town called Kuching in the 70s.

This was the film that inspired me to start looking up at the sky & dream of literally flying through the clouds like Wendy & the gang did.

Well, the closest that I'd ever get to doing that would have to be in a plane. Peter Pan was just a figment of imagination. Pigs can't fly & that goes for humans as well. These shots were taken on a MAS flight from KLIA enroute to Taipei.

Below the clouds.

Through the clouds.

Above the clouds.

If you look carefully, you can still see the city/townscape below.

Clouds Over KLIA

2010-02-22T14:41:00.001+08:00

I just came back from an amazing 6-day holiday trip to Taipei. The good thing was I got to sit by the window on the plane & got some pretty nifty shots of the clouds in the sky.

This was before the plane took off at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Accumulating Altocumulus Altostratus

2010-02-13T18:00:00.000+08:00

Accumulating what?!!

It has been a very educational experience for me doing this blog on nothing but clouds. Sometimes it feels like I'm watching the Discovery Channel.

Now I think these are called the Altostratus.

And I think the Altostratus at the bottom is meeting some Altocumulus at the upper left hand corner. That is probably as interesting as watching paint dry on the wall.

This hobby is dangerous. I am in grave danger of becoming a meteorological geek.

The Towering Cumulonimbus

2010-02-11T18:00:00.002+08:00

I'm beginning to learn the names of clouds. Saw this huge towering one rising into the sky like a giant.

I wonder if the Hiroshima bomb went up as high, & I wonder if Burj Khalifa is as tall.

Burnt Clouds

2010-02-09T22:54:00.000+08:00

Do not be alarmed. 2012 is another 2 years away. Clouds like these do not exist, at least I've never seen them before.

These photos were photoshop-ed cos I wanted to bring out the little details & colours that the naked eye wouldn't be able to see.

I know there are probably many true advocates of pure photography out there, those who are sworn enemies of anything photoshop-ed. But I really can't help it, the filters really bring out another dimension that weren't visible before.

Mountains of Clouds

2010-02-05T17:51:00.009+08:00

Photographing the sky is not what you can consider an easy task, at least not for me.

Firstly, I'm not the kind of guy who appreciates fishing prawns the whole day in one of those prawn shops. So if you were thinking that I'd be driving around town cloud-hunting, you're very wrong. Don't get me wrong. I wish I could, but I just don't have that luxury of time. Maybe I'll do that one day when I retire, if the clouds are still there.

Secondly, it's not easy to find the perfect angle to take a clear shot at the sky. There'd always be other elements vying for your attention. Big fat trees, electric poles & telephone cables all want to be in the frame.

So in the end, you'd just have to snap whatever you can get & then do the cropping when you get home.

Now, I don't know how you would find these pics. But I think I've managed to salvage a bit of dignity here.

These remind me of Zhang Yimou's 1/3 framing in Yellow Earth, where the heavy sky sits on top of the thin land below.

Kuching Sky at 6.30pm

2010-02-01T22:06:00.005+08:00

I found this quite alien.

But it reminds me of something more common & worldly - Wella hair care, Olympic torch & somehow, Indiana Jones' whiplash.

Cloudy but Sunny

2010-02-01T08:24:00.000+08:00

It was raining in the morning & the sky persisted with grey clouds pretty much throughout the whole day. But as usual around 4pm, the sun was low enough to give a nice highlight. So I caught this pic.

Not sure if you can read anything from it, or whether it moves you in a certain way. All I know is that Kuching is one of those places on planet earth that still has beautiful blue skies, even on a cloudy day.